The Kentucky Wildcats program, especially with John Calipari struggling to find consistency in recent seasons, has received a lot of criticism for struggling to rebuild its team around the high-profile recruits they are bringing to Lexington.
As the game of basketball has evolved into a style that utilizes more guards, until this season it often seemed like Kentucky was falling behind.
Kentucky's offense was ranked No. 1 for most of the start of the season, but took a step back in SEC play. Before Saturday's game against the Alabama Crimson Tide, Kentucky had failed to score 76 points in three straight games, including Wednesday's painful 75-74 loss to LSU.
On Saturday, the offense was back on form and Kentucky outran Alabama en route to a 117-95 blowout, one of the greatest offensive performances of the Calipari era in Lexington.
Typically, in college basketball, a team wins when it scores 95 points. However, the Cats, led by Justin Edwards, who was a perfect 10/10 from the field, scored over 58 points in both halves and cruised to victory.
Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats was the first to point out how good Cal was at signing shooters and revolutionizing the field.
Nate Oats on Kentucky's offense:
“Cal has done a good job of fixing the offensive issues and the shooting issues that he has had the last few years.”
Transforming its “archaic” offense and scoring 117 points against one of the best offensive coaches in the country has to feel good for Cal.
— Tristan Pharis (@TristanUda) February 25, 2024
Oats later joked that Kentucky probably broke several records with the performance of its offense.
“I don’t know what records they set on offense tonight, but I’m sure they set some,” Oats said.
Oats actually picked the winner of tonight's game on Friday when he said, “Maybe the first one to 100 (points) wins.” That proved prophetic, as Kentucky reached the 100-point mark with 8:52 to play .
The Cats have one of the most exciting offenses in America and will be a tough opponent for anyone in the NCAA Tournament.
The praise most likely won't go to Calipari, especially since the team has struggled frequently in recent weeks. However, its offense is far better than it has been in recent seasons, and its innovation is a big part of that success.
Expect the Cats to continue to dominate on that end of the pitch, but to really start to put things together they'll need to showcase their defensive sets as well. We've seen this team get better in that regard, especially in last week's 70-59 win at Auburn, another top-15 team that beat Kentucky.
This team will be fun to watch as they complete SEC play in the coming weeks.
Two weeks ago today, Kentucky lost at home to Gonzaga and I asked the UK fans who they wanted to replace John Calipari.
Chris Beard, Bruce Pearl and Nate Oats were three of the most popular answers.
John Calipari has beaten all three in the last 14 days
— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) February 24, 2024
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