After the beatdown that Alabama laid on Kentucky, Nate Oats stepped up to the mic and delivered another beatdown, this time verbally to Mark Pope and Kentucky. While he did not come right out and say the word fraudulent, there is no denying that is what he is saying:
“When I watched them play, I didn’t feel like they moved the ball great...You look, and their assist rate is pretty high. Do a deeper dive — 27 assists, 27 assists — against bye games that play a lot of zone. When they played high major teams that were really good, their assist rates were very low.”
Alabama coach Nate Oats talks about their gameplan against Kentucky, identifying they don’t move the ball.
— Tristan Pharis (@TristanUda) January 3, 2026
“When I watched them play, I didn’t feel like they moved the ball great. You look and their assist rate is pretty high. Do a deeper dive, 27 assists, 27 assists, against… pic.twitter.com/E8QqS4be5P
Kentucky basketball's offense stagnates in crushing Alabama defeat
The worst part is he isn't wrong. In all of Kentucky's power 5 games, their assist totals have been pretty bad:
- Louisville- 14
- Michigan State- 13
- North Carolina- 8
- Gonzaga- 12
- Indiana- 10
- St. John's-13
- Alabama- 9
After the game, Mark Pope said that Kentucky was not a team that should ever have 9 assists, but looking at the stats, they don't move the ball well at all against good competition. Part of the low assist numbers is also just atrocious shooting, so even if they do drive and kick, the chances are low that the shot actually goes in. On the season, Kentucky as a team is just at 33% from deep. Only Collin Chandler and Trent Noah are over 38 percent behind the 3-point line.
That means even if they do the right thing and kick it, nearly none of them will reliably be able to make the open shot. As a player, after a while, you lose confidence in your teammates, and you try to do too much. You drive into the lane and turn it over, you miss easy passes, and you take bad shots. This has all happened to Kentucky this year.
But that's not all Oats had to say, "When they drive, they're looking to score. They're not really looking to move it. We're looking to move it." When you see a Kentucky player go to the hole, their only mission is getting a shot up at the rim; that is the end goal.
And then he rubbed a little extra salt in the wound, "They throw it into the bigs, they’re not really passing." On the season, Kentucky's big men average a total of 4.8 assists per game from their 6 front-court players, including Noah, who averages 1 per game, and he didn't even play in Tuscaloosa. Compare that to last year, Amari Williams and Andrew Carr had 4.9 per game on their own. The roster is just different, and still Pope plays it the same.
If Kentucky is going to get back on track and make the tournament, it is going to need to make open shots at a much higher clip. This will be just like the COVID year. A group of talented players who could never play as a team.