Alabama died by the 3

“Live by the 3, die by the 3” is a popular saying in the modern age of basketball. Note to self: when you shoot 3-30 from distance, you’ll wind up dying 99 percent of the time.

Unfortunately for Alabama, the Crimson Tide didn’t fall into that one percent category against Kentucky on Saturday night. Behind a historically poor 10 percent (3-30) shooting effort from distance, Alabama fell at home to the Wildcats by a final score of 66-55. And while UK played terrific on defense throughout the night, it wasn’t like Alabama didn’t find any open looks — shots just didn’t fall. The performance was about as demoralizing for a team dependent on making 3s as it possibly could have been.

“When you shoot that many, if they go you win if they don’t go you lose,” Calipari said postgame of Alabama’s 3-point shooting. “Unless you kept rebounding and that was my thing the whole game. If you give them one shot they’re not gonna have enough attempts to beat you. And we gave them two, three shots a couple of different times.”

Alabama was able to best Kentucky in the offensive rebounding category, finishing with 16 compared to 10 for the ‘Cats. That resulted in 16 second-chance points for ‘Bama. However, UK still managed more defensive rebounds (34-31) to help prevent what could have been even more extra possessions for the Crimson Tide.

Kentucky's performance tonight at Alabama was the best defense that I've seen a team play against Alabama in Tuscaloosa in two years.

REMEMBER: Kentucky has NOT lost at full strength in 2022.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 6, 2022

Shooting 30 3s in a game isn’t unusual for Alabama under head coach Nate Oats. Coming into Saturday, his squad had already attempted at least 30 triples in eight different outings. But unlike Oats’ first two seasons with Alabama, his outside shooters aren’t nearly as accurate this time around.

Alabama hasn’t been beating teams this season through its 3-pointer, although they perform at a much higher level when that shot is falling. The Tide is actually a very good 2-point shooting team this season. I even wrote on Friday that the 3-point shot wouldn’t be the end all be all for Alabama; they were winning still games in spite of bad outside shooting games.

To be fair though, I didn’t foresee a 3-30 performance from deep.

“We were really talking about we’re gonna make them take tough 2s. Let’s get out on them and make them take tough 2s,” Calipari said. “We don’t want to open up our stance and give them layups. But we did it some. Couple guys, they just can’t keep retreating, they open, and the guy goes and shoots a layup. And they got a couple of those but all in all, we kept them from being able to do that. And they missed some open 3s. It wasn’t their night to make 3s.”

For the most part, Kentucky was contesting Alabama’s jump shots. Only a few times did the Tide get a clean look from deep, but even those weren’t falling. As Calipari said, it simply wasn’t their night. The Big Blue Nation can look back to UK’s 2-19 night in the early-season loss to Notre Dame as evidence. Sometimes it just happens.

To put Alabama’s 3-30 clip from beyond the arc into historical terms, it marks the worst shooting performance from a Power 5 program since at least 2010, per Basketball-Reference. The Tide’s 55 points were also the fewest during the Oats era.

The next time these two teams meet, which will be two weeks from now at Rupp Arena, don’t expect Alabama to shoot 3-30 again. But to give Kentucky’s defense some credit, it could be close to that percentage. UK has now held opposing teams to 10 percent shooting or worse from deep in four different games this season, per BigBlueHistory. The last time it happened before this season? Dec. 2017 against Georgia.

Alabama didn’t shoot well by any means, but Kentucky’s defense deserves a significant chunk of the credit.