More Impressive Stats from the Kentucky Win over Alabama

You watched history happen Saturday at Rupp Arena. The 117-95 Kentucky victory over Alabama was the most points ever scored by the Wildcats in a game against a ranked opponent.

By now, you’ve learned a few more historical notes. Justin Edwards is just the third player in school history to take and make all of his 10+ field goal attempts. The Wildcats shot 63.1% from the field, the third-best mark in an SEC home game under John Calipari. Let’s dive even deeper into some of the more impressive stats from the win.

Noteworthy NET Numbers

Kentucky improved to No. 19 in the NET and No. 18 in KenPom following the win. Kentucky has three wins over teams in the top ten of the NET rankings. No other team in the country has more. John Calipari’s squad is 4-2 against AP Top 25 teams this season.

Kentucky still has two Quad 1 games left in the regular season. The regular season finale is at Tennessee, who improved to No. 5 overall after dominating Texas A&M Saturday night.

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Kentucky Scoring and Shooting Stats

The Wildcats’ 117 points were the most ever against Alabama and the most against an SEC opponent since Pitino’s Untouchables tallied 120 against Vanderbilt in 1996. Kentucky passed the 100-point threshold with just under nine minutes left in the game. The Cats now have five 100+ point games this season, tying the 2017 team for the most in the Calipari era.

Kentucky made more than 54% of their three-point attempts. The Wildcats are 7-0 this year when shooting better than 45% from downtown. Shooting 41% on the season, Kentucky is the best three-point shooting team in college basketball.

The Wildcats have three of the top four three-point shooters in the SEC: Reed Sheppard (51.4%), Rob Dillingham (45.2%), and Antonio Reeves (44.9%). The three combined to go 7 for 11 from three-point land against the Crimson Tide.

Speaking of Reeves, he now has 15 games of 20 points or more. The SEC Player of the Year candidate is averaging 19.9 points per game, just behind Jamal Murray’s Calipari era record of 20.0 per game.

Impressive Defensive Notes

Reed Sheppard’s streak of games with 5+ steals ended at three. He settled for four on Saturday. Tisk, tisk. The Kentucky native leads the SEC and ranks No. 7 nationally in steals per game (2.74).

Even though the Wildcats allowed 95 points, they did something few have been able to do against Alabama. Kentucky forced the Crimson Tide to shoot twos by running them off the three-point line. Alabama attempted 17 three-pointers. Only two other times has a Nate Oats team had fewer attempts from outside. They shot 16 threes against Iona in 2021 and UConn in 2023, both of which resulted in losses.

More Notes and Numbers from Kentucky’s big win over Alabama.