Alabama basketball’s first opponent of the 2025 SEC tournament is set. The Crimson Tide will face Kentucky Friday in Nashville.
The Wildcats beat Oklahoma 85-84 Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena. Kentucky won in dramatic fashion, first squandering a lead to the Sooners with 5.6 seconds remaining, before Otega Oweh scored a difficult left-handed layup to close out the victory and break OU’s heart.
Oweh led the Wildcats with 27 points in the win. He also had five rebounds for the team lead in that category, while Andrew Carr led UK in rebounds with seven.
Alabama won both regular season matchups against UK. UA went to Lexington in January, coming away with a 102-97 victory, before cruising to an even bigger victory 96-83 in February at Coleman Coliseum.
The Crimson Tide earned a double-bye to the SEC Tournament and is the No. 3 seed in Nashville. The Wildcats are the No. 6 seed, earning a single bye, opening their tournament by battling the Sooners, who took down Georgia in the first round.
It has been nearly a week since Alabama took the court. The Tide closed out the regular season on Saturday by beating Auburn on a buzzer-beater by Mark Sears.
Kentucky and Oklahoma played the late game on Thursday, a game that actually ended Friday due to the Texas-Texas A&M game earlier in the day going to double-overtime and slowing down the schedule.
Alabama could have one of its top young players back for Friday’s game. Derrion Reid, who has missed time due to a hamstring injury, was listed on the SEC’s availability report as questionable for the matchup Thursday.
The Crimson Tide and Kentucky are scheduled to tip off in the latest game on Friday. The matchup will begin at roughly 8:30 p.m. CT, 20 minutes after the conclusion of the 6 p.m. Missouri-Florida matchup.