Alabama
Score prediction for Alabama basketball vs Kentucky: Picks, injury updates, how to watch
Times are tough for Alabama basketball, but the Crimson Tide has to be tougher on Saturday.
Looking to pay back Alabama (21-5, 10-3 SEC) for the defeat in Rupp Arena last month, Kentucky comes barreling into Coleman Coliseum fresh off an 82-61 win over Vanderbilt. Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide didn’t get a win this week a loss at Missouri to follow up a defeat against Auburn.
The negatives surrounding the returning Final Four team this week have outweighed the positives, but the sky isn’t falling … yet. That’ll have to be re-examined after the weekend. Although, Alabama’s bid for the SEC regular season championship hangs in the balance, there are enough reasons to believe the Tide can restore the faith of home fans against UK.
Alabama basketball vs Kentucky picks, predictions
Alabama 98, Kentucky 95: The re-emergence of Mark Sears’ All-American form at Missouri was the glimmer of hope the Crimson Tide needed to find in the darkness of defeat. It took the senior point guard’s third 24-point game of the season against UK to win on Jan. 18. It’s a safe bet that a scoreless night for Sears won’t do the trick against the ‘Cats, who still have five double-digit scorers with five games left on the schedule. That’s compared to an Alabama roster that’s sorely missing the shooting capabilities of Latrell Wrightsell Jr. right about now with the grueling stretch it has to round out.
Once again, Alabama faces its own offense made over in Kentucky. Both are shooting over 48% from the floor, but 3s are falling more effortlessly for the likes of Kentucky’s Koby Brea and Ansley Almonor, each making over 44% of 3-pointers off the bench.
Should the Crimson Tide want to win by more than five points this go-round against UK, perimeter defense will be key. Furthermore, a full 40 minutes of defense that Alabama hasn’t put together yet. Should Alabama want to win at all, the biggest key will be not letting Kentucky go on a run off the bat like it let Missouri and Auburn, or bank on the injury bug that’s bitten the ‘Cats when they have a lethal bench.
Injury updates for Alabama basketball vs Kentucky
Derrion Reid (lower body) played against Auburn after being ruled “game-to-game” by Nate Oats following the Georgia game on Feb. 1, in which the freshman forward experienced “discomfort” while playing through injury. However, he was doubtful for Mizzou and didn’t make an appearance.
Kentucky starting guards Lamont Butler (shoulder) and Jaxson Robinson (wrist) missed their second straight game against Vanderbilt. UK’s bench still holds Kerr Kriisa, who’s been out with a broken foot since December.
How to watch Alabama basketball vs Kentucky: TV channel, streaming options, start time
TV channel: ESPN
Streaming: ESPN+, Fubo
Starting at 5 p.m. CT, Alabama basketball versus Kentucky will be shown on ESPN and can be streamed via ESPN+ and Fubo.
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Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
At this time last year, in what turned out to be the best St. John’s season since the 1999-2000 campaign, the Red Storm trailed Quinnipiac at halftime at Carnesecca Arena.
A few weeks later, they went 1-2 during a disappointing trip to the Bahamas that featured late-game shortcomings.
Why the history lesson, you may ask?
Consider it a reminder for those who forgot: Last season wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. There were issues that really weren’t ironed out until January. St. John’s wasn’t a lockdown defensive team in November, despite the revisionist history I’ve seen on social media. Kadary Richmond, the big transfer portal addition, didn’t find his game until the new year.
An era came to an end on Saturday in Bryant-Denny Stadium, and it’s hard to say the next era is an improvement.
Hard, but not impossible.
Alabama football handled important business at home in beating LSU 20-9 as coach Kalen DeBoer ran his two-year home record to 12-0. Outside the stadium, it felt very much like the fiery rivalry it’s become; well-captured for posterity by intrepid beat reporter Colin Gay. Inside the stadium, only LSU’s broken season − the Tigers entered with three losses and an interim coach after Brian Kelly’s firing − made it seem anything less.
It was still the passion-filled, hard-hitting affair that it’s always been.
But it also marked the last year of the SEC’s commitment to pit these two programs annually. They’ll play only twice over the next four years, then the league will re-evaluate its new scheduling format that increased league games to nine per team. It’s just not going to be the same going forward, and no, it’s not really a rivalry anymore, because it can’t be circled on every calendar.
So it’s with a lump in the throat that this goodbye must be said, but the alternative would’ve been more like a lump on the head. The SEC assigned Auburn, Tennessee and Mississippi State to Alabama as its three annual opponents over the four-year schedule cycle from 2026-2029, and of course, Auburn and Tennessee were the right two rivalries to keep. They just mean more to the fan base, and for the SEC, they mean more for television ratings. As for the decision to include Mississippi State, that comports with the league’s effort to maintain some balance in the difficulty of each school’s three annual foes, as well as a parallel goal of geographical proximity.
Of course, the 2025 season by itself makes a poor argument that Tennessee, Auburn and LSU would’ve been too tough an annual trio to saddle Alabama or anyone else with. Tennessee’s not bad, Auburn’s not good, and LSU’s not anything special. But across time, those are three programs that have proven they’ll invest the resources necessary to be a dangerous foe in any given year, and that’s not something that can be said about Mississippi State.
Speaking of programs with resources, Alabama will catch Texas twice in the same four-year cycle, not coincidentally in the two years that it won’t face LSU. In other words, the TV monster will be well-fed regardless, and navigating an SEC schedule won’t be a picnic for anyone. That’s to be expected when the deepest league in the sport adds two helmets like Texas and Oklahoma.
The Alabama-LSU breakup was the right thing to do, but it be strange absence from the schedule. The 2027 season will mark the first year it won’t be played in my lifetime, and I’m 54. The last time it wasn’t played (1963), BeatleMania swept the UK and a gallon of gas set people back 30 cents.
And boy have there been some big ones.
LSU’s 9-6 overtime win in 2011 was truly epic. A defensive struggle for the ages with future NFL players all over the field. Rightly billed as the Game of the Century, it might’ve been the last truly great defensive game, at least played by a pair of national powers at the time, before RPO offenses changed everything. Celebrities from LeBron James to Shaq to dignitaries like Condoleezza Rice lined the sideline. The whole scene belongs in a museum.
There have been some marvelous finishes, too.
Just a year after the 9-6 game, AJ McCarron hit T.J. Yeldon with a screen pass for a 28-yard touchdown in the final minute for a 21-17 win.
Former Alabama LB Marvin Constant stuffed Josh Booty at the goal line on the final play of the 1999 game to preserve a 23-17 Alabama win, and it all but cost him his career. Constant blew out multiple knee ligaments on the play, and was never quite the same player again.
It’s been a long and memorable marriage.
But with the advent of the nine-game schedule, it’s a marriage that’s run its course.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
The No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide (7-1) have completely turned things around since their Week 1 loss to the Florida State Seminoles, putting themselves in position to control their own destiny for a College Football Playoff berth — and potentially a spot in the SEC Championship Game.
However, the stakes continue to rise with each passing week. On Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, Alabama will host the LSU Tigers (5-3) in a primetime showdown — LSU’s first game since firing head coach Brian Kelly.
The Crimson Tide enter as 10.5-point favorites, according to DraftKings Sportsbook, but they’ll be facing a team with nothing to lose, while Alabama carries all the pressure to perform — a combination that can sometimes produce unpredictable results.
Just hours before kickoff, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer and his team received some major news regarding star wide receiver Ryan Williams. After missing several games due to a leg injury, Williams has reportedly progressed well and is expected to play against LSU, per On3’s Pete Nakos.
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So far in 2025, Williams has appeared in seven games for Alabama during his sophomore season, recording 33 receptions for 495 yards and three touchdowns while averaging 70.7 yards per game.
Although he’s remained a highly talented receiver, Williams hasn’t quite lived up to the lofty expectations set for him after his standout freshman season. Many anticipated he would take the next step and emerge as one of the nation’s premier wideouts — right alongside Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith.
Nonetheless, Williams’ presence on the field alone forces LSU’s defense to account for him at all times due to his big-play ability. In his last appearance against South Carolina, he hauled in seven receptions for 72 yards.
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