Alabama just showed Kentucky basketball what it’s lacking. It’s on UK to find an answer.

Much has gone right for Kentucky in the early juncture of the Mark Pope coaching era.

Pope has recruited well. He has installed an entertaining brand of basketball. Through 18 games, the Wildcats have already logged marquee wins against Duke, Gonzaga and intrastate rival Louisville.

Alas, on Saturday at Rupp Arena, Nate Oats and Alabama showed Pope’s first UK team what it lacks.

Getting star turns from veterans Grant Nelson (25 points and 11 rebounds) and Mark Sears (24 points and nine assists), the Crimson Tide hung the first home loss on a Pope-coached Kentucky team with a 102-97 victory before a raucous Rupp Arena crowd of 21,108.

Through five Southeastern Conference games, UK (14-4, 3-2 SEC) is allowing an average of 88.6 points a game.

The Crimson Tide (15-3, 4-1 SEC) exposed UK’s defensive vulnerability in multiple ways.

Alabama hit over 38% (13-for-34) of the 3-point attempts it launched. The Crimson Tide claimed 15 offensive rebounds, leading to that same number of second-chance points. Bama got to the foul line a whopping 34 times, cashing 29 of them.

“The first five minutes of the game, transition was an issue,” Pope said afterward of Kentucky’s defensive problems. “Rest of the game, the offensive glass was an issue. We let them shoot (almost) 39% from the 3-point line. We sent them to the free-throw line (almost) 40 times. Do those things, it makes it a really tough match to win.”

Alabama’s Nelson, the 6-foot-11, 230-pound super-senior from Devils Lake, North Dakota, proved to be an especially problematic match up for UK. With Kentucky’s Andrew Carr playing through a back injury, the UK power forward had the devil’s own time staying in front of the hard-driving Nelson.

The former North Dakota State star entered Saturday’s game having failed to score in double figures in Alabama’s three previous games. He had 19 points by halftime against UK.

Versus the Cats, Nelson — who had failed to convert a 3-point shot in the Crimson Tide’s prior three games — opened up driving lanes for himself Saturday by draining a pair of early 3-pointers.

Nelson is “pretty dynamic,” Kentucky forward Ansley Almonor said. “He got some of our bigs in foul trouble early. Hit a couple of shots he doesn’t usually hit according to the numbers.”

Perhaps a healthier Carr might be able to provide more defensive resistance when the Wildcats and Crimson Tide meet again in Tuscaloosa on Feb. 22 — or maybe a mobile 6-11 forward who can drive the ball down hill is a matchup for which UK lacks a check.

In a game matching two head coaches renowned for their fluency with the metrics-influenced, 3-pointers heavy “modern basketball,” success from behind the arc figured to be pivotal.

It wasn’t just that Alabama took seven more treys than Kentucky (34-27) and made two more (13 to 11), the Crimson Tide used the 3-pointer to devastating effect in the game’s decisive run.

After UK tied the game at 81 on a Brandon Garrison dunk with 5:11 left, Alabama responded with a 9-0 run that included treys from guards Chris Youngblood and Labaron Philon.

The key for teams that play up-tempo, offensive-oriented styles such as Bama and UK is the ability to get defensive stops when they are needed.

That is a test Kentucky failed Saturday.

The Wildcats also need to foul less. In UK’s two SEC losses, Saturday vs. Alabama and an 82-69 defeat at Georgia on Jan. 7, foes have been sent to the foul line a combined 63 times.

“I feel like we are playing good defense,” Kentucky guard Otega Oweh said, “and they just keep calling fouls.”

An elite offensive team with defensive limitations — UK is No. 2 in adjusted offensive efficiency but No. 86 in defensive efficiency in the Pomeroy ratings — could find March Madness inspiration from the Wildcats’ Saturday opponent.

Last season, Alabama made the Final Four with a team whose adjusted defensive efficiency in the Pomeroy ratings was a putrid 111.

“I’m sure (Pope) is going to try to get them to be a little better than we were last year — because we weren’t very good,” Oats said of the Crimson Tide’s 2023-24 defense.

The Alabama coach said that, after a regular season of defensive struggle, he challenged last season’s Tide prior to the NCAA Tournament “to try to be the best defensive team in the country the next three weeks. And our defense for five NCAA Tournament games was a lot better than the regular season.”

According to hoops statistical maven Bart Torvik, Alabama’s average adjusted defensive efficiency for its final five regular-season games last year was 107.88. In the Tide’s five 2024 NCAA Tournament games that ended with a Final Four loss to Connecticut, that average improved marginally to 102.78.

As good as Kentucky’s offense is in 2024-25, even a minimal degree of defensive improvement could be the difference between a memorable March and a forgettable one.

On Saturday at Rupp Arena, Alabama showed UK how far the Wildcats have to go.

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