Scouting the Alabama Crimson Tide
Freshman guard Ashton Hagans and Sophomore forward PJ Washington celebrate after a and one play. UK mens basketball team defeated Florida 66-57 on senior night at Rupp Arena on Saturday, March 9, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky. Photo by Michael Clubb | Staff
March 15, 2019
The Kentucky Wildcats will face the Alabama Crimson Tide in an SEC quarterfinal match up. This is the 151stmeeting between the two teams and the fourth straight year the teams have met in the SEC tournament. The Wildcats are hoping to clench their fifth straight SEC tournament title.
Head Coach:Avery Johnson (4thseason)
Record: 18-14 overall, 8-10 Southeastern Conference play
Likely Starters
#0 Donta Hall: senior forward, 6-9. 10.5 PPG and 8.8 RPG
#1 Riley Norris: graduate student guard/forward, 6-7. 6.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG and 0.7 APG
#2 Kira Lewis Jr: freshman guard, 6-3. 13.9 PPG, 2.5 RPG and 2.9 APG
#10 Herb Jones: sophomore guard, 6-7. 6.1 PPG, 3.5 RPG and 2.0 APG
#30 Galin Smith: sophomore forward, 6-9. 3.8 PPG and 2.3 RPG
Alabama Threats
Standout freshman Kira Lewis Jr. leads his team with scoring (13.9), assists (2.9), free throw shooting (.788). Senior Donta Hall leads the team in rebounding with 8.8 per game. The Crimson Tide ended their regular season play ranked 3rd in SEC three-point field goal defense (Opponents shoot 32% from behind the arc), ranked fourth in field goal percentage defense (43.5 percent), and fifth in scoring defense (71.9) in conference play.
“It’s going to be a hard game for us. They did beat us and they did it in a physical manner,” John Calipari said.
On Paper
|
Kentucky |
Categories |
Alabama |
|
26-5 |
Overall |
18-14 |
|
15-3 |
Conference |
8-10 |
|
76.8 |
PPG |
72.3 |
|
62.2 |
OPP PPG |
71.2 |
|
+11.6 |
Margin |
+1.1 |
|
.477 |
FG % |
.445 |
|
.404 |
FG % DEF |
.436 |
|
.359 |
3 PT% |
.339 |
|
.347 |
3 PT% DEF |
.327 |
|
.743 |
FT % |
.664 |
|
38.5 |
RPG |
37.8 |
|
29.4 |
OPP RPG |
34.2 |
|
+9.1 |
Margin |
+3.6 |
|
13.7 |
APG |
12.3 |
|
12.7 |
TOs PG |
13.7 |
|
5.0 |
BPG |
4.7 |
|
4.5 |
SPG |
4.5 |
“With Reid being out for a few weeks coming back, we’ve just got to see, ‘are we in sync? Is it going to change some of the stuff we’re doing?’ But we’ll see,” John Calipari said.
The Wildcats and Tide are set to tip-off at 7 p.m. at Bridgestone Arena and will be broadcast on SEC Network.