Alabama Basketball: Kentucky beatdown shows it’s time to respect the Tide

Alabama Basketball came into the season with expectations of competing in the SEC, but two weeks into January and they look like a team capable of even more.

Alabama basketball had a rough start to the season as they lost by 18 points to Stanford in their second game of the season, and then losing to Clemson and Western Kentucky in the weeks following.

Now, it is mid-January and the Crimson Tide find themselves on a six-game win streak, five of which came against SEC opponents including Tennessee on the road, who was ranked seventh at the time.

With their 5-0 SEC record, Alabama is on top of the conference as one of only two teams without a loss in conference play (the other being South Carolina who has played only one SEC game).

Not only is Alabama on a winning streak, but they just got through maybe their toughest stretch of the season. At Tennessee, versus Florida, at Auburn (with Sharife Cooper), and at Kentucky, now they get to play six straight unranked teams as they’ll have Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State, Kentucky (who they beat Tuesday night), Oklahoma, and LSU.

Although the Crimson Tide weren’t ranked in this week’s AP Poll (received the most votes of the teams not ranked) they were 24th in the Coaches Poll, and after Tuesday’s win over Kentucky, they will undoubtedly be ranked next week should they beat Arkansas on Saturday.

All that being said, it’s time to take Alabama basketball seriously. With a win under their belt against Tennesee who many thinks have a real chance to go deep in the NCAA Tournament, Alabama needs to be given some more respect.

Not only is Alabama playing well, but they’re doing it without maybe their best player, Jahvon Quinerly. Quinerly has missed the past three games and there is currently no timetable for his return.

In addition to Quinerly, another one of Alabama’s top players, Herb Jones, went down early in the first half of the Kentucky game and didn’t return, yet Alabama still managed to get the job done without him, Jordan Bruner also went down late in the game against Kentucky.

Nonetheless, Alabama is legit and it’s time to start giving them the respect they deserve as they are taking the SEC by storm and don’t show any signs of slowing down.