Go back a decade and the moment was something beyond unthinkable. Anyone around Coleman Coliseum in those days couldn’t possibly envision the scene that played out Saturday afternoon.

Under a scoreboard with the No. 7 Crimson Tide leading unranked Kentucky by 29, a chant began in the Alabama student section — one that would’ve stunned a college basketball fan of the early 2010s.

“NIT! NIT! NIT!,” they yelled as the margin crossed the 30-point barrier in what ended a 78-52 Alabama win over Kentucky.

It’s still somewhat startling to think the power dynamic between these two programs has shifted where that’s not laughable. But with Kentucky losing for a fifth time and not a single Quad 1 win to their name, this 13-2 Crimson Tide program is taking further steps in moving the center of SEC hoops gravity outside of Lexington.

Alabama led by as many as 31 points in what ended as the most lopsided Alabama win over Kentucky in their 157-game series.

“We got rattled,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “We had a bunch of guys who got rattled in the game and even in the second half when we opened it up and went dribble-drive straight, we weren’t able to move and get where we were able to go.”

Kentucky shot just 28.8% from the field and returning national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe had a season-low four points.

The Coleman Coliseum crowd — announced at 13,474 — was locked in from the jump but rolled with the second-half momentum wave.

“I feel like our fans really rattled them,” Alabama freshman Brandon Miller said after scoring a team-high 19 points. “I think they came out with a lot of high energy from the jump. I think with us playing hard rattled them too. I mean you have Charles (Bediako) guarding one of the best centers in the nation.”

Alabama coach Nate Oats, while appreciative of the wild student support, wasn’t quite agreeing with their bracketology. He was proud of the way his team kept extending the lead after it crossed the 20-point mark.

“I mean, Kentucky is not going to go to the NIT,” Oats said. “They’re going to be an NCAA tournament team. They have plenty of talent over there. Cal has done a good job over there assembling talent. They have really good players but they didn’t shoot the ball well tonight.”

Since this is the only regular-season game with Kentucky, Oats said he’d love to see the Wildcats get hot enough for this game to be a league tiebreaker.

But the NIT talk is more a part of the character of the college game.

“Students are going to be students,” Oats said with a grin. “I love them. They’re great. That’s why college environments are better than NBA environments because student sections that gets after it but it’s still college students being college students.”

Alabama moves on to face No. 13 Arkansas on the road next week, its next challenge in what’s certainly a third straight trip to the NCAA tournament.

A decade ago, the NIT felt like an inevitability for the Crimson Tide by the time Kentucky made a January trip to Tuscaloosa.

For Oats, he was still a high school coach in suburban Detroit just 10 years ago.

Imagine convincing him he’d lead top-10 Alabama to a 26-point win over Kentucky back then.

But in January 2023, the former math teacher’s leading a once-dormant program into a position to make its deepest postseason run in program history.

It’s a long way from early 2013 when the NIT would be Alabama’s eventual postseason destination

A year later, they’d go 13-19.

Those days have passed and the chants of a packed Coleman Coliseum only made that ride slightly more surreal on Saturday afternoon.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.