When Kentucky's men's basketball team takes the floor for a game, there's an unspoken understanding it already owns an advantage over its opponent in the form of Oscar Tshiebwe.
It's Oscar Tshiebwe. It's the reigning unanimous national player of the year.
Why wouldn't that work in the Wildcats' favor?
Someone forgot to tell Alabama coach Nate Oats. The Crimson Tide, which hosted the Wildcats Saturday, viewed Tshiebwe as a liability — one they could exploit. Repeatedly.
“We've seen him mess up a lot of ball-screen coverages in scouting them,” Oats said after his team's 78-52 win at Coleman Coliseum, Alabama's largest-ever margin of victory over UK, “so we wanted to attack him in that.”
And they did. Tshiebwe messed up so often on those defensive assignments Saturday that Kentucky coach John Calipari subbed out his superstar forward not once, but twice, in the first half.