What Alabama's Four-Game Win Streak Against Kentucky Means to Nate Oats

The Crimson Tide joins a small handful of SEC programs to accomplish this feat, but this standard has led Oats to be "very disappointed when we don't win a championship."

Jan 3, 2026; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama head coach Nate Oats directs his team at Coleman Coliseum. Alabama downed Kentucky 89-74. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News | Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 14 Alabama basketball firmly has Kentucky's number.

That's quite the sentence given that Wildcats basketball is historically in a similar prestige to Crimson Tide football based on success, status and tradition. But following Saturday's 89-74 home win, Nate Oats' team joined a small handful of SEC programs to take down Kentucky four consecutive times.

For the first time in school history, Alabama beat Kentucky in all three contests last season (one at home, one on the road and one in the SEC Tournament), and now it has joined an elite club. So, how does Oats feel about having the Wildcats' number?

"We've got it to where we're competing for championships every year," Oats said during the postgame press conference. "Little disappointed these last two years where we haven't won an SEC Championship.

"To me, Kentucky is kind of that standard. They've won the most games, the most championships. They've got all this tradition, and you respect it, and they have very high expectations over there right now.

"So for us to get them three times last year and get them the first time this year, I think we've gotten our program to [where] I'm very disappointed when we don't win a championship around here. So we're competing for a championship this year.

Kentucky now sits at 9-5 and just outside of the latest AP Top 25, a subpar start for its standards. Oats stressed that "they still have a lot of talent," but doesn't believe "their chemistry is quite where they want it right now." That said, he detailed why the Wildcats, who were a 3-seed and made the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 last season, were "good" in 2024 — helping his case for Alabama being a championship-level team.

"I saw a stat last year, they had more top-15 wins than anybody in the country," Oats said. "So it's not like coach [Mark] Pope doesn't know what he's doing. He went in there and won a bunch of big games. So it's not like we just beat up on a bad team. ... So we've gotten our program up to where we're competing with the best teams in the SEC."

There's no doubt that Alabama's main weakness this season has been offensive rebounding. It's been the driving force in each of the Crimson Tide's losses. However, UA has made some improvement in this area over the past couple of weeks, as it hauled in 17 offensive rebounds against and South Florida and Yale and had 14 on Saturday.

Alabama's offense has been one of the most productive units since Oats' arrival in 2019 and the defense has shown some growth this season. As the Crimson Tide continues to go through SEC play after a conference-opening win against Kentucky, a league championship is very much a realistic possibility.

Alabama has a chance to emerge as a major threat next Wednesday, when it faces No. 11 Vanderbilt on the road. The 14-0 Commodores are one of six teams in college basketball that remain undefeated.

"When I say compete, we've won more championships in the SEC than anybody since we've gotten here seven years ago," Oats said. "We haven't won any in the last two years. So we're competing for one this year, getting a win on the road against the best team in our league, at least in the analytics, would go a long way to winning a championship on Wednesday."

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