Mar 14, 2025; Nashville, TN, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide guard Chris Youngblood (8) drives to the basket against the Kentucky Wildcats during the first half at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Alabama fanbase enjoyed an unusual experience on Friday night in Nashville. The Crimson Tide faithful were treated to No. 3 Alabama dominating No. 6 Kentucky in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament to eliminate the Wildcats and march on to semifinal Saturday.
In years past an Alabama-Kentucky matchup in the SEC Tournament spelled certain doom for the Crimson Tide as the Wildcats eliminated the Crimson Tide eight different times since 2000 with four eliminations coming in the quarterfinals.
Head coach Nate Oats ensured that his first game against Kentucky in the SEC Tournament followed a different script as the Crimson Tide broke a 12-game conference tournament losing streak against the Wildcats. Alabama didn’t break the streak that spanned 42 years on a lucky shot or a halfcourt heave, the Crimson Tide served the Wildcats the biggest conference tournament loss in program history by beating Kentucky 99-70.
Alabama’s dominating effort served as another exclamation point for a program fighting to prove itself as one of the best in the country. The Crimson Tide’s Friday win over Kentucky marked the first time Alabama’s beaten the Wildcats thrice in a season and is the first time the program’s won three in a row over Kentucky.
“Yeah, we’ve kind of established ourselves as a top 10 program in the country over these last four or five years,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “Kentucky is good. We’re also good. It’s going to happen. I mean, hopefully there’s some other teams we can rattle off some winning streaks against.
“This Kentucky team, they’ve got a lot of injuries. They’re not the full strength. We know that, so… But it’s nice to get three of ’em. We had the home and away with them this year. They were a lot closer to full strength, I think they had everybody at their place. That was a big win. Now that they’re kind of down, especially in their backcourt, I thought our guards really took advantage of the fact that they were a little bit thin in the backcourt tonight.”
This century, Kentucky has eliminated from Alabama from the SEC Tournament in 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
But Friday will be the first time the two teams have met in the SEC Tournament during Nate Oats’ tenure at Alabama.
— Katie Windham (@katiewindham_) March 14, 2025
The Crimson Tide defeated Kentucky by five in Lexington in January, by 13 in February in Tuscalooosa and turned a seven-point halftime lead on Friday in Nashville into its 19-point victory by turning up the defensive pressure in the second half and converting on 3-point opportunities of their own.
“Man it’s good,” Alabama forward Grant Nelson said. “Such a historic program. They’ve got a new head coach, great coach. I think it just goes to show the group we have this year, how good we are and how we can learn from the past games. It seemed like each time we played them we got better and played a better game against them.”
The Crimson Tide under Oats has now gone to a Final Four, been ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 Poll, won 142 games and four SEC championships and can now say they’ve beaten the Kentucky Wildcats three times in a single season.
