Kentucky 77 - 71 Alabama (No. 2,071)

To understand what happened yesterday, it helps to look at the game from the statistical perspective advanced by Ken Pomeroy. He basically treats college basketball like one of those table-top we played as kids. Each team has an offensive efficiency number and a defensive efficiency number, and these numbers tell you how many points the team would be expected to score or give up over the course of 100 possessions against an average team. Now going into yesterday's game, UK's defense was number 7 in the country in defensive efficiency, while Alabama's was number six. Each of them was projected to give up around 86 points per 100 possessions. UK was scoring around 115 points per 100 possessions, while Alabama was scoring around 106 points per 100 possessions. Taking these factors together, and considering the likely tempo of the game and the fact that Kentucky was at home, Pomeroy figured that there would be around 65 or so possessions for each team and that the final score would be UK 67, Alabama 58. In other words, Alabama would score somewhat less than one point per possession, while UK would score almost exactly one point per possession.

Now as it turned out, there were 65 possessions in yesterday's game, but the actual score was much higher than expected -- UK won 77-71. Alabama became only the third team all year (the others were UNC and IU) to score 70 points against the Cats, while UK scored more points against Alabama than anyone had done all year.

How did this happen? Did the teams just play bad defense? Not necessarily. Alabama normally makes 28 percent of its three-point shots -- it ranks 333d in the nation in that category. Yesterday, the Crimson Tide took seven three-pointers. If they had shot their average from beyond the arc, they would have made two of those. Instead, they made five. So that's nine extra points right there, and that accounts for most of the difference in their projected points and their total points. They also benefited for some acrobatic drives to the basket by Trevor Releford, who went 6-6 from the field in the second half, and some great interior play by Jamychal Green, who had a monster game: 8-13 from the field, 6-8 from the line, 22 points and 12 rebounds.

Now of course, the traditional response to UK fans when faced with this type of anomalous shooting performance is to bemoan the fact that everyone saves their best effort for us. And it is true that Alabama gave it everything they had yesterday. They were looking at a potential third straight loss, they were coming off of a terrible game against Vandy, and they were looking for a huge win that would have likely guaranteed them a slot in the NCAA's. But it's also the case that over the course of 16 conference games, someone is going to play great against you. Two years ago, we lost to South Carolina because for one game, they put on an amazing performance. These things happen.

But Kentucky managed to win anyway because, instead of being rattled by Alabama's uncanny shooting, the Cats played one of their best offensive games of the year -- putting up 77 points in only 65 possessions against a very good Alabama defense. They did this even though Anthony Davis, who was banged around by the Alabama players all day, went an uncharacteristic 2-10 from the field. And they did it despite going 4-11 from the line in the first half -- something that is very unusual for the Cats, who normally make about 71.5 percent of their free throws. But the Cats shot well from three-point range -- 6-14 on the day, or 42.9 percent. And in the second half they made 23-29 free throws on a day when Bama had clearly decided that any Cat who got close to the basket would have to earn his points at the line.

Special credit should be given to Terrence Jones (15 points, six rebounds) and Michael Kidd-Gilcrist (13 points and 5 rebounds in only 23 minutes due to foul trouble). Davis overcame his poor shooting and still ended up with 11 points (7-9 from the line) and 9 rebounds. Lamb had his best game in a while, with 14 points (2-3 from three-point range). Marquis Teague played almost the whole game, made only three turnovers against a ferocious Alabama defense, and sank two huge free throws in the last minute. And Darius Miller made four big free throws down the stretch (the Cats went 8-8 from the line in the last minute of the game) and chipped in 11 points of his own. In fact, all six of the Cats main players scored in double digits yesterday.

So this was a great, great win yesterday, because the Cats found a way to beat Alabama on a day when Bama played like a top 10 team. With Syracuse losing last night, there's a good chance the Cats will move back up to number 1 -- and then they will take that ranking on the road to Georgia and LSU.