NASHVILLE, Tenn.
Less than 24 hours after its heart-stopping 85-84 win over Oklahoma, No. 6 seed Kentucky faces the No. 3 seed Alabama Crimson Tide in a quarterfinal game of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament on Friday.
The game is scheduled to start 25 minutes after the conclusion of the Missouri-Florida quarterfinal. That matchup is to start at 7 p.m. EDT at Bridgestone Arena.
Alabama swept the regular-season series against Kentucky, beating the Wildcats 102-97 in Lexington on Jan. 18, then 96-83 in Tuscaloosa on Feb. 22.
Ben Roberts, Ryan Hermens and yours truly will be reporting from courtside. Cameron Drummond and Mark Story will be monitoring the telecast. You can follow Ben’s updates on Bluesky at @benrobertshl. You can follow the rest of us on X/Twitter at @markcstory, @ryanhermens, @cdrummond97 and @johnclayiv.
You can follow a dedicated Kentucky basketball X/Twitter list by clicking here.
SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket
Kentucky’s Andrew Carr (7) battles Oklahoma’s Mohamed Wague (5) during Thursday night’s SEC Tournament second-round game in Nashville. Ryan C. Hermens rhermens@herald-leader.com
Scouting report: Alabama
Ranked No. 5 in the AP Top 25, Alabama is 24-7 overall and 13-5 in the SEC. The Crimson Tide snapped a two-game losing streak with a 93-91 overtime win at then No. 1 Auburn last Saturday. Bama is No. 6 in KenPom’s adjusted overall efficiency rankings. Coach Nate Oats’ offense is No. 3 in the adjusted efficiency rankings, No. 35 in the adjusted defensive efficiency rankings.
Preseason SEC Player of the Year Mark Sears scored 30 points in the Tide’s Coleman Coliseum triumph over the Cats on Feb. 22. The guard is averaging 19.2 points a game. Grant Nelson scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in Alabama’s Rupp Arena win. Nelson is averaging 7.9 rebounds per game.
Oats is known as a coach who stresses the 3-pointer, but Alabama is No. 4 nationally in 2-point percentage at 59.9%. The Crimson Tide is 111th in 3-point percentage at 35.0%.
Scouting report: Kentucky
Kentucky is 22-10. UK is No. 15 in the Pomeroy adjusted overall efficiency rankings. Mark Pope’s team is No. 7 in the adjusted offensive efficiency rankings and No. 56 in the adjusted defensive efficiency rankings.
Kentucky is 23rd nationally in 3-point percentage at 37.6% and 27th in 2-point percentage at 56.4%. UK is 24th in 3-point defense at 30.6%.
The Wildcats are expected to be without starting point guard Lamont Butler, who played eight minutes on Thursday before reinjuring his shoulder. Koby Brea helped pick up the slack with 22 points. Otega Oweh was again the hero, of course, scoring 27 points and hitting the game-winning shot with under a second remaining.
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 8:30 PM.
