Get ready for the Kentucky Wildcats vs. Alabama Crimson Tide showdown! Explore our expert Same Game Parlay Pick and elevate your game day experience.
- Date & Time
- February 20th, 2025
- Teams
This is a banner year for SEC men’s basketball. For decades, schools eschewed basketball in favor of football, but the combination of NIL and TV money has made the SEC the powerhouse in college basketball this season. Five of the top seven teams in the country play in the SEC, and there are a whopping nine SEC programs in the Top 25. We could see as many as 12 SEC teams make it to March Madness, and there’s no doubt that both the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide and the No. 17 Kentucky Wildcats will be taking part in the tournament.
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Kentucky and Alabama squared off on Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend last month. The Wildcats and Crimson Tide combined for almost 200 points as Alabama edged Kentucky 102-97 in Lexington. Since that loss, Kentucky is just 4-4 in its last eight games, but the Wildcats were able to knock off Tennessee twice and three of those losses came on the road.
Alabama appeared poise to grab a No. 1 seed after that victory with seven straight wins prior to last weekend. However, the Crimson Tide fell at home to Auburn last Saturday, and they lost on the road to Missouri on Wednesday night. They gave up a whopping 204 points in the two losses, and that has many questioning whether or not this team can succeed in March Madness.
Kentucky Wildcats at Alabama Crimson Tide SGP
We are no longer seeing Kentucky rely heavily on freshmen like they did under John Calipari. All five Wildcats’ starters this season are upperclassmen, as they hit the transfer portal pretty hard this offseason. Eight of the nine players that have started at least one game for Kentucky this season transferred into the program in 2024. That has insured the Wildcats aren’t as unpolished as we have seen in previous years, but there still isn’t a lot of continuity.
Injuries have played a major part in Kentucky’s recent downturn. Kerr Kriisa has been out since December with a broken foot, while Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson have both missed multiple consecutive games now. Butler is reportedly dealing with a shoulder injury, while Robinson has been hampered by a wrist injury. Butler and Robinson are the second- and third-leading scorers on the roster, so their absence has been critical.
Otega Oweh has stepped up his efforts, and he played a big role in Kentucky’s 82-61 home win over Vanderbilt on Wednesday night. Oweh led all scorers with 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting, and he also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. It’s important that he doesn’t get in foul trouble against Alabama as he is the main weapon for Kentucky on offense.
Alabama will be a sizeable favorite per the college basketball betting odds here after beating Kentucky on the road last month. The Crimson Tide are on a losing streak, but those defeats came at home against No. 1 Auburn and on the road against No. 15 Missouri.
Mark Sears leads the Crimson Tide in scoring with 18.5 PPG, and he runs a lot of the offense for this team. Sears isn’t the most reliable shooter, but he is a solid distributor, and he hits his free throws when he gets to the line.
Aden Holloway is the main perimeter threat for an Alabama team that shoots a ton of threes. Holloway is currently making 42% of his threes, and he is averaging 11.7 PPG. However, the Crimson Tide haven’t been as effective from the perimeter as we have seen in the recent past under Nate Oats. They are making just 34.2% of their threes this year. The interior shooting has been superb though with the Crimson Tide making 60.5% of their two-point field goal attempts.
When I wrote on the Kentucky-Alabama game last month, I took Alabama and the Over and was right on both accounts. I’m going to back those same horses again this time, as the Wildcats have too many injury concerns and the Crimson Tide are just too good to lose three straight games.
ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE VS. KENTUCKY WILDCATS OVER
ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE TO COVER
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