Three takeaways as Kentucky basketball gets blown out at Alabama

Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s blowout 78-52 loss at No. 7-ranked Alabama at Coleman Coliseum on Saturday:

1. It’s back to the drawing board

The Cats had finally figured it out, remember? John Calipari had found the secret sauce with his push for a more deliberate style of play. He had shortened his bench. His team had taken care of business against archrival Louisville before New Year’s, then defeated a scrappy LSU team in a possession-by-possession game after New Year’s at Rupp Arena. The Big Blue arrow was pointing up.

And then, just like that, the house of cards all came crashing down. Kentucky’s 26-point loss to a much, much better Bama was UK’s worst by margin since the 118-84 shellacking UK took from Zion Williamson and Duke in the 2018 Champions Classic in Indianapolis. It was UK’s worst SEC loss since the 88-58 trouncing at Tennessee on Feb. 26, 2013, in Knoxville, the game after Nerlens Noel tore his ACL at Florida.

As point guard Sahvir Wheeler put it, “We got popped.” That was true from pretty much from start to finish. It would be an understatement to say Alabama was the aggressor. Before a packed and raucous house backing the seventh-ranked Tide, the Cats were down just 20-19 with 4:57 left in the first half when it all unraveled. Bama finished the half on a 15-5 run for a 35-24 lead at the break, then opened the second half with a 13-2 run for a 48-27. After that, only the margin mattered.

“I thought we were ready to play a good game on the road,” Calipari said afterward. “We’re going to have to prove we can play on the road. We’re going to have to prove at some point we can play on the road.”

They haven’t come close to proving it yet. Calipari’s club is now 1-5 away from the friendly confines of Rupp Arena. It has lost to Michigan State, Gonzaga, UCLA, Missouri and Alabama on the road. It lost by double digits to four of the five — 16 at Gonzaga; 10 to UCLA in New York; 14 at Missouri and now (yikes) 26 at Alabama.

2. Kentucky’s offense was smothered and embarrassed

At 12-2 overall and 2-0 in the SEC, Alabama entered Saturday afternoon’s conference clash ranked No. 12 in adjusted defensive efficiency by KenPom. Surely now the Tide will catapult into the top 10, if not top five.

The Tide swarmed UK center Oscar Tshiebwe inside and forced missed shots from the outside. Kentucky shot 28.8 percent from the floor, its third-lowest shooting percentage of the Calipari era. It was UK’s worst shooting number since 28.1 at Texas A&M on Jan. 10, 2015, in a game UK won. Kentucky’s worst shooting performance under Calipari is 26.9 percent at South Carolina on March 1, 2014.

“Kentucky’s going to be alright,” Oats said afterward. “They just had a bad shooting night.”

Horrendous is more like it. Freshman Cason Wallace, who sat for most of the first half after picking up two fouls, ended up 1-for-13 from the floor. The previously surging Jacob Toppin was 1-for-10. Tshiebwe was 1-for-7.

“We can’t win when three of our starters we’re counting on go 3-for-27,” Calipari said.

Kentucky made just five of its 20 three-point attempts. Wallace missed all six of his attempts from beyond the arc. Fellow freshman Chris Livingston was 0-for-3.

Alabama was terrifically defensively, no doubt, but Kentucky’s offense continues to be a mess. Yes, the the numbers look good. Against good teams, however, this Kentucky team is clueless on the offensive end. Saturday, UK averaged 0.767 points per possession, its lowest number since 0.738 against Baylor on Feb. 1, 2012. That was Calipari’s NIT team.

3. Alabama’s students could be right

With the Tide rolling in the second half, the Alabama student section gleefully engaged in chants of “NIT, NIT, NIT” as Kentucky continued to struggle to put the ball in the basket.

“It’s a long season,” Wheeler said afterward. “We’ve lost two conference games. If we win out, and we have two losses, are you asking me (about urgency), I don’t think so. It’s a long season.”

Given the way this Kentucky team has played, the season might be shorter than the senior point guard thinks. Saturday’s loss dropped the Cats to 0-4 in Quad 1 games in the NCAA’s Net rankings. (UK entered Saturday 36th in those rankings.) To date, Kentucky’s best win is over a now 9-5 Michigan team ranked 45th by Pomeroy and 73rd by the NET.

“We beat Kansas last year (the way Alabama) beat us today,” Wheeler said. “And Kansas went on to win the championship.”

But at no point this season has this Kentucky team played like anything resembling an NCAA championship team. In fact, as the season has progressed, the Cats have looked more and more like a team that could be on the outside looking in when March Madness begins.

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