SEC Basketball: 2018-19 Keys to Kentucky at Alabama

1. Contain Penetration

For Kentucky, disallowing Alabama’s guards to get into the lane will be a primary factor in the game’s outcome. Alabama uses an inside-out approach where the perimeter players are freed up by attention on the ball in the paint. They use a lapse in perimeter defender’s attention to move and slide inside the perimeter and to the basket. Alabama is considerably long, athletic and consistent around the rim in turn.

Kentucky will especially want to keep focus on 2-point FG prevention as 3-point FGs shouldn’t be any threat. The Crimson Tide, aside from their star freshman, are not particularly good at shooting the 3-point shot. In fact, they’re objectively bad. The team, outside of Kira Lewis Jr.’s 40% mark, shoots a below average 32% on the whole. That’d be good for 260th among D-1 teams.

On the other end, Kentucky has shown, both against UNC and Louisville, that the guards are capable of getting to the rim to score or dish off passes to big men camping out the baseline. Alabama can bottle up one of Kentucky’s three strengths as an offense if they can hedge the screens on the perimeter and deny ball penetration here.

The Wildcats paint penetration is part of a three-headed offensive monster that includes the post up game of PJ Washington and Reid Travis and the three-point threat of a gang of Calipari’s very talented perimeter players. Alabama will have its hands full as Kentucky can do just about everything the Crimson Tide are capable of on offense… only better. It’ll take an exemplary effort from Alabama’s defense to keep up with Kentucky in this phase of the game. But at home, in conference play, anything is possible.