A former mid-major college star was the scoring engine behind Alabama’s win over Kentucky

A former mid-major college basketball star — who was one of the biggest prizes in the transfer portal a few seasons ago — left his mark at Rupp Arena in a big way Saturday afternoon.

No. 4 Alabama’s pulsating 102-97 road victory against No. 8 Kentucky — which snapped UK’s 15-game home winning streak — was powered by a massive scoring performance by Crimson Tide fifth-year forward Grant Nelson, who tallied a game-high 25 points as Nate Oats’ team scored an impressive road win.

Previously a standout player for three seasons at North Dakota State, Nelson averaged 17.9 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game during his final season with the Bison in the 2022-23 campaign.

Nelson hit the portal after that season, and was coveted by plenty of programs around the country. According to college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa, Nelson was ranked as a four-star transfer in the portal that offseason.

After committing to Oats and Alabama, Nelson settled in as an every-game starter for the Crimson Tide last season. As part of an Alabama team that reached the Final Four for the first time in program history, Nelson averaged just under 12 points and six rebounds per game.

He had 13 points and seven rebounds in Alabama’s 117-95 loss at UK last February.

Nelson’s averages are even better this season — he entered Saturday’s game at 12.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per contest — and they’ll get a healthy boost after his outing against the Wildcats.

Nelson’s 25 points against UK were the most he’s scored since transferring to Alabama, and the most in any game for the 6-foot-11 North Dakota native since he scored 24 against North Carolina last March in a Sweet 16 win.

Nelson did most of his damage early Saturday against the Cats. He scored 19 points in the first half on 6-for-10 shooting from the field. This included him uncharacteristically making a pair of 3-pointers within the first four minutes of the contest.

Nelson entered the game shooting just 25% from 3-point range this season. After averaging about three attempts from deep per game before Saturday, he took seven 3-pointers against UK.

“He came down and knocked down two 3s to start the game, which has not been his game this year. So credit to him,” UK coach Mark Pope said. “Then it was just all ‘head down to the rim.’ It was a complicated matchup for us at times.”

Not only did Nelson’s strong scoring game come primarily in the first half, but it came within an opening flurry from the visitors at Rupp. Nelson had 10 of Alabama’s first 15 points and 12 of the Crimson Tide’s opening 20 points in Saturday’s game.

This all came after Nelson’s first two offensive plays resulted in getting blocked at the rim by UK’s Amari Williams and shooting an air ball on a 3-point attempt.

“I thought he was aggressive. Got downhill. Attacked them,” Oats said afterward when the Herald-Leader asked about Nelson’s performance. “He stepped to the free-throw line and made free throws, so he wasn’t afraid to attack them. We got him in the pocket a little bit. He was playing great.”

Nelson’s second-half showing — six points and seven rebounds, alongside four fouls and turnovers each — was more uneven, but the damage had already been done.

As Oats referenced, the free-throw line was a major factor in Nelson’s big scoring day. A 62.9% free-throw shooter on the season, Nelson knocked down nine of 10 foul shots as several UK players — including Andrew Carr and Williams — battled foul trouble.

Nelson’s 10 shots from the foul line were the second-most by an opposing SEC player against UK this season. Only Florida senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. (13) attempted more.

“Little ticky-tack fouls we kept giving up, sending them to the free-throw line,” UK sophomore center Brandon Garrison listed as a reason for the loss. “... That really hurt us today.”

“For us to send (Nelson) to the free-throw line 10 times is really tough,” Pope added. “That’s not the space that he traditionally lives in. And credit to him, he was really, really stubborn about getting to the rim. We had a tough time catching the move legally, and we had a tough time reading gap help. And those were both things that we needed to do that were really important to us having a chance to win tonight.”

Furthermore, Nelson was coming off a 3-for-7 performance from the charity stripe in Alabama’s previous game, an unexpected home setback against No. 21 Ole Miss.

“Grant Nelson came out ready to go,” Oats said, adding that Nelson made 90 of 100 free throws and 91 of 100 free throws in recent days as part of individual training sessions following that Ole Miss game.

“... He got in the gym and worked. We were able to make small corrections to his shot, give him some confidence... Thought he was huge.”

Nelson’s work on the glass also shouldn’t be discounted, especially given the rebounding issues Kentucky has struggled with this season.

Alabama outrebounded UK 42-38 on Saturday, including a 15-13 advantage in offensive boards. Nelson pulled down 11 rebounds in the game, which tied his best showing on the glass against a high-major team this season.

“Winning in the SEC regular season is tough. We knew we had to win some games on the road,” Nelson said afterward in an ESPN interview. “... Just coming in, we struggled offensive rebounding against Ole Miss. We knew we had to come in and give full effort. We beat (UK) on the boards today and we need to keep doing that moving forward to get our offense going.”

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