Alabama forward Mouhamed Dioubate (10) in action against Kentucky at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN during the SEC Tournament on Friday, Mar 14, 2025. / Photo by Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics
NASHVILLE — No. 5 Alabama men’s basketball cruised past No. 15 Kentucky 99-70 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal on Friday night. The victory advances the Crimson Tide to a semifinal game against No. 4 Florida on Saturday.
The SEC Tournament is a neutral site for every team, but Kentucky fans always pack the arena as if it were a home game. It was super loud at first, but it grew quieter and quieter as the night went on.
There’s so much to dissect from this matchup at Bridgestone Arena. Here are three takeaways:
While defense has been somewhat of a touchy subject for the Crimson Tide this season, that really wasn’t the case in the second game against the Wildcats and it definitely wasn’t the case on Friday night.
More specifically, transition defense has been a bit polarizing the past couple of months, but it was on the correct side of the pendulum in Nashville. Alabama guard Labaron Philon was a big reason for this as in addition to his team-high 21 points and four assists, the freshman also swiped three steals and recorded an incredible block.
“I call it lucky plays ’cause when I’m guarding somebody else and I can just turn around the see the ball loose, grab it, see a blur in the open floor, that’s going to be easy for me,” Philon said during the postgame press conference. That’s because of my teammates turning them over and I get the chance to go down and lay the ball up. I credit them the most.”
And like the second Kentucky game, this one had a similar theme of shutting down the Wildcats’ best player––Otega Oweh. Before the second matchup, the guard scored in the double digits in the entire
season. He was the only player in the SEC coming into the game to hold that incredibly impressive status, but only had two points on 1-for-9 from the field and even fouled out with just under seven minutes remaining in regulation on that Feb. 22 evening.
Oweh missed some time during Friday’s game due to an injury he suffered during the game. He still played 21 minutes and Alabama head coach Nate Oats seemed to have a defensive emphasis on him once again. Oweh finished with eight points on 1 of 6 shooting (6-for-8 from the free-throw line), with four rebounds, zero assists, a steal and five turnovers.
“Obviously it’s a thinner Kentucky team,” Oats said during the postgame press conference. “They’ve got a lot of injuries with Robinson has been out on the year. And then Oweh got hurt a little bit. Only played 20 minutes. We were fortunate that they weren’t as deep as us.”
For a heavy majority of the contests this season, Alabama has been on the wrong end of the turnover battle. However, this was not the case against the Wildcats as the Crimson Tide forced 16 and committed 10. But real dominance came after the takeaways as while Kentucky scored six points off turnovers, Alabama finished with 29!
“Our plan was to try to keep them off of transition, keep them off the three-point line, pressure them on defense. On offense I thought we could attack them a little bit better downhill than we had in the past…I thought our transition could get to them. I thought we ended up breaking them towards the end of the first half, early second half.”
There really wasn’t any negative from Alabama that truly stood out from start to finish. Kentucky tied it at 14 apiece early on as it took advantage of a Crimson Tide struggle.
Alabama missed its first 10 3-point attempts before finally sinking one. The Wildcats kept it close during most of the first half, but as previously stated, were locked up by the Tide’s defense.
Offensively, Alabama was able to hold onto a lead, which they never gave up, with its efforts down low. It really started at the very beginning of the night as Philon and center Clifford Omoruyi connected for an alley-oop slam for the first points of the game. The duo did the same thing again a couple of minutes later––talk about a momentum starter.
Alabama forward Grant Nelson and guard Mark Sears also started to get involved down low early, which created a never-ending trend of aggression. Crimson Tide forward Mouhamed Dioubate was a big example of this as in 11 minutes of playing time in the first half, he logged six points and five rebounds.
The performance down low continued into the second half as Alabama finished the game with more total rebounds (41), defensive rebounds (34), points in the paint (46), fastbreak points (19) and blocks (4). The Crimson Tide also shot a very efficient 59.5 percent from 2-point range.
Alabama seemed to play at a very fast pace for a good portion of the evening up until the win was no longer within reach of Kentucky. Fresh legs were constantly on the floor too as nine players were on the floor for at least 13 minutes. The amount of driving inside and kicking the ball around gave Oats a certain number of possessions that he was content with.
“Perfect. So we got to 80,” Oats said. “That’s what we like to get to, especially with a team that likes to run with us. Especially with their depth being as low as it was.”
Regular season resumés are often thrown out the window in the postseason and the countless upsets during the NCAA Tournament and conference tournaments over the last several decades reflect that.
That said, teams need players to step up in these one-and-done or win-or-go-home contests. Whether it’s the leading scorer or a small role player, everyone needs to elevate their game. During Tuesday’s press conference, Oats named three players who needed to step up during the SEC Tournament.
Oats first mentioned forward Jarin Stevenson, who has been a player “that’s got a lot more than he’s been giving us.” Stevenson kept this in mind and shined against Kentucky with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, including 3 of 5 from deep, plus four rebounds and three steals in just 19 minutes.
“Best game Jarin has played all year,” Oats said. “He’s is peaking at the right time…Shoot, he’s an X-factor for us with his size, athleticism, the way he can kind of play the three and four. Put him at 6’10” at the three, he’s been great with the perimeter players. When he was playing as well as offense, doing what he’s able to do on defense, he’s a big X-factor for us moving forward. I was super happy for Jarin. We needed him to play well. He needs his confidence.”
Oats then mentioned forward Mouhamed Dioubate “hasn’t quite been as good as he could have been here these last few weeks.” Dioubate was all over the floor on both ends as he finished with 13 points on 5 of 6 from the field, eight rebounds, two blocks and a steal in 22 minutes. He also won the Hard Hat for tallying the most blue-collar points. As previously stated, he did a nice job of defending––as he does for most games.
Oats’ third player he had his eye on was guard Aden Holloway. The Crimson Tide sixth-man is one of the premier three-point shooters in the SEC but “He’s got to be more aggressive.” Holloway drove a bit more inside against the Wildcats but he still stayed around the 3-point line as he finished with a very respectable 13 points on 4-for-9 shooting (2 of 4 from downtown) and also tied a team-high four assists.
