Nate Oats assesses Charles Bediako's performance on defense during blowout win vs Kentucky

Charles Bediako had quite an assignment on defense Saturday as Alabama took on Kentucky at Coleman Coliseum. He was tasked with stopping Oscar Tshiebwe, the reigning national player of the year, and he rose to the occasion in a big way.

Tshiebwe had a rough go on offense, going just 1-for-7 from the field for four points and pulling down six rebounds as Alabama cruised to a 78-52 victory over Kentucky. Nate Oats had plenty of praise for Bediako’s performance after the game and shouted out his ability to stop Tshiebwe from scoring.

“I thought Charles did an exceptional job on Tshiebwe,” Oats told the ESPN broadcast crew. “He had a hard time scoring. … He ended up with four points and six rebounds. I thought our guys did a great job taking care of the ball. We kind of got Tshiebwe in some ball screens, we thought we’d get Charles on some holes behind, which he did. They got upset, took him out, which made it easier for us on defense.”

After putting up 35 points in the first half, Alabama looked strong again on offense in the second half, outscoring Kentucky 43-28 after the break. The Crimson Tide got some big performances in the victory, led by 19 points from Brandon Miller and 16 points from Mark Sears to help pace the effort on that end of the floor.

Nate Oats credits Alabama for playing hard despite having sizable lead

Oats also pointed out a parallel to Alabama’s last game against Ole Miss when the Crimson Tide had a 27-point lead at the under-eight minute media timeout. In that matchup, the Rebels cut into that lead before the Tide pulled away.

Alabama again had a 27-point lead at the under-eight, and Oats said the players didn’t want to allow another run like that.

“I just thought our guys played hard,” Oats said. “We were up 27 on Ole Miss, we got the timeout I think at the under-8, we were up 27 again. Against Ole Miss, we cut it to 15, so what are we going to do here? Everybody’s like, ‘Let’s put our foot on their throat and kill them.’ I thought we came out of that under-eight timeout, getting some stops and ready to go.”