Alabama unquestionably has one of the best overall defenses in the country and they used it to maximum effect in their 68-66 upset over Kentucky on Tuesday. If Anthony Grant does anything well, it is certainly on the defensive end of the floor.

The Crimson Tide held Kentucky's three top scorers, Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight and Doron Lamb, to a combined 16-for-42 from the floor. They each were within striking distance of their typical scoring night (17, 14 and 16 respectively), but they needed more points to do so.

Alabama was the more physical team, making every possession on offense high stress. That type of suffocating defense will sometimes rattle a young team on the road in conference play and we saw that from the Wildcats. It spilled over to the open jumpers that Kentucky was unable to convert.

Furthermore, the tightness carried over to the free throw line where they hit just 13-of-22.

Kentucky is a team that relies almost exclusively on jumpers and getting easy looks in early offense, but Alabama demonstrated a blueprint of how a fairly mediocre team can counter that effectiveness.

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