NASHVILLE, Tenn. _ More than once, John Calipari more or less said ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi was correct. Kentucky was "regular-good," meaning the postseason would be full of basketball drama and largely empty of carefree joy rides.
Kentucky's 79-74 victory over Alabama Saturday breathed life into that perception.
Once more, Kentucky showed that regular-good is good enough.
De'Aaron Fox led the way in making that true. With UK ahead 62-61 and barely five minutes remaining, Fox scored nine straight points.
Fox finished with a career-high 28 points, 12 of which came in the final 5:13.
That propelled Kentucky to Sunday's Southeastern Conference Tournament finals. The Cats improved to 28-5.
Malik Monk snapped out a two-game scoring slump. He added 20 points. A third freshman, Bam Adebayo, chipped in 10 points.
Alabama, which was playing its third game within 48 hours, fell to 19-14. Dazon Ingram led the Tide with 17 points.
The first half featured a pair of revivals, one that brought cheers from the large contingent of UK fans and the other groans.
The poor starts that hindered complicated UK's last three regular-season games returned. Kentucky fell behind by double digits barely more than six minutes into the game.
This made Isaiah Briscoe seem like a prophet. After Kentucky's fast start Friday against Georgia, he cautioned reporters not to assume UK's slow starts were a thing of the past.
"We've got a quick turnaround," he said. "We need to see what we can do tomorrow."
Then Monk, the SEC's leading scorer until making only three of 17 shots in the last two games, returned to form. He kept UK afloat by making his first three shots and finished the first half with 13 points (11 more than he scored against Georgia in Friday's quarterfinals).
Alabama's early rebounding put Kentucky in catch-up mode. Nine second-chance points propelled the Tide to a 17-7 lead with 13:29 left. By the second television timeout, Alabama had as many offensive rebounds (five) as Kentucky totaled (five).
Surely this would not surprise South Carolina coach Frank Martin, who credited Alabama's rebounding as a key to beating his Gamecocks on Friday.
"Alabama deserved to win ...," he said after the game. "They beat us to every loose ball, destroyed us on the glass. ... You can't win the game if you can't rebound. ... Alabama just physically beat us up."
Kentucky responded to the early onslaught. Alabama had only one offensive rebound in the final 14 minutes of the first half.
Kentucky's defense also contributed to a turning of the tide. After building the 17-7 lead, Alabama went more than three minutes without a basket, and more than eight with only one.
In that time, Kentucky took its first lead _ 18-17 with 9:48 left. Monk's final basket brought the first-half lead to its zenith at 29-22.
Kentucky started slowly in the second half. The Cats missed their first four shots. Then big plays pushed UK ahead.
Seniors Derek Willis and Dominique Hawkins hit 3-pointers from the corners, each bringing a huge cheer.
So did a jumper by Fox with the shot clock about to buzz.
When Monk cut backdoor for floater while being fouled, the three-point play enabled Kentucky to match its largest lead: 49-42 with 12:46 left.
Two fouls on Briscoe in 22 seconds helped Alabama rally. He was called for a flagrant foul with 7:11 left. Riley Norris made both free throws. Then at the 6:49 mark, Briscoe fouled Norris again. Norris made one of two free throws to reduce UK's lead to 58-57 and set up the dramatic final minutes.
