SEC Basketball: 2018-19 Keys to Kentucky at Alabama
By Andy Harrell
Kentucky and Alabama kick off their SEC schedules on Saturday. Here are the biggest keys to the game.
Kentucky Wildcats Men’s Basketball will enter Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa on Saturday to face the Alabama Crimson Tide in both teams’ first conference game.
The Wildcats will be attempting to double down on convincing, significant wins against UNC and at Louisville in the last two weeks. Contrarily the Crimson Tide will be on the hunt for a marquee win in a season that’s been defined thus far by undulating consistency. Alabama is 9-3 on the season and has wins over some notable, albeit unranked, names but have also inexplicably found themselves on the wrong side of the box score in games against Northeastern, UCF and Georgia State.
John Calipari’s Kentucky team is reloaded and aiming at another SEC championship but will first have to hurdle their first conference obstacle Saturday in the form of Avery Johnson’s veteran Alabama front court and 5-star freshman standout Point Guard, Kira Lewis Jr.
The Kentucky Wildcats under John Calipari is 12-2 against the Crimson Tide but Avery Johnson has turned Alabama into a formidable contender. Behind the leadership of Freshman Colin Sexton, last year’s Alabama team broke into the Top 25 rankings for the first time since 2012 before making the NCAA tournament as a #9 seed. The Crimson would eventually fall to future National Champion Villanova in their second game but not before upsetting the #8 seed Virginia Tech along the way.
This year’s sole regular season matchup between these SEC East and SEC West contenders should provide a spark to jumpstart one if not both of these teams to competing for the top spot in their divisions of the conference. Here are the keys that’ll decide this game.