Alabama Basketball Falls Again to Kentucky: 55-70

There is not a whole lot to say here. Unlike the last meeting between Alabama and Kentucky, where the Tide started off both halves strong before falling flat, the Wildcats just straight up took Coach Anthony Grant's Alabama squad out to woodshed. There was never a single moment in the entire game where I thought "Hey, if everything happened perfectly from here on out, Alabama might have a chance."

Ricky Tarrant missed the entire game due to injury, and Retin Obasohan got the start at point guard in his place. Kentucky immediately sensed Obasohan's relative lack of comfort at the point, and played extremely aggressive full court defense. Alabama opened the game visibly intimidated, and it seemed like every player on the team had butterfingers for the first 5 minutes of the game. Fortunately, Obasohan took advantage of his playing time and scored the first five points of the game for Bama (three of which came from a really impressive acting job to get three free throws).

The Tide were then held scoreless for about six more minutes of game time, and it wasn't long before they were losing 10-28. From that point, Kentucky eased off the gas a little bit, and just cruised along scoring at the same pace as the Tide. Alabama had cut the lead to 13 by halftime, but never got closer than 12 points through the rest of the game. It was mostly uneventful from there, and Kentucky eventually closed out the game with a 15 point lead, 55-70.

The Crimson Tide had three players reach double digits. As you would expect, one of those was Levi Randolph, who posted 12 points on a 50% outing and added a couple of steals to his night. The other two were much less-likely candidates. Retin Obasohan put up 11 points, even though he only shot 33%. But Shannon Hale was the major surprise. Hale actually led the team with 13 points, one block, and two offensive rebounds. Hale got the start  and seemed to be more comfortable on the court than he normally does.

Jimmie Taylor managed to pick off a Kentucky alley-oop attempt, but was not credited with any blocks on the day. He was slightly more involved offensively, and put up 8 points. Rodney Cooper, Riley Norris, Michael Kessens, and Justin Coleman combined for 11 points and 8 turnovers. Kessens did manage a team-high five rebounds, and Coleman did a very good job beating Kentucky's full court press, but those four all had a very forgettable day.

The game went exactly as expected, and Kentucky is now off to their program's second best start of all time at 21-0. Meanwhile, Alabama continues to revel in mediocrity, and Coach Grant has to be feeling more and more pressure. The talent seems to be there, but the team just can't come together offensively. An NCAA tournament bid is likely out of the question at this point though.