Nick Saban knows his way around the Coleman Coliseum hardwood.

Before his hip replacement, his noontime basketball league was legendary among the Crimson Tide football staff. But Saturday, he was in the cavernous coliseum as a spectator.

Seated in the front row on the baseline near Alabama’s bench, Saban and wife Terry had a good view of the No. 7 Crimson Tide’s 78-52 pounding of Kentucky.

Nate Oats mentioned that dynamic in the postgame news conference.

“It was great seeing Coach Saban in the front row,” Oats said. “He doesn’t make it out to too many. He has to take too many pictures and sign too many autographs when he comes out. It was nice to see him out there.”

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Oats, an unabashed college football fan who long admired Saban before coming to Tuscaloosa, then quoted his coaching colleague.

“I think he’s got a … make their butts quit I think is his saying, if I remember,” Oats said while substituting for an alternative posterior descriptor. “We were trying to make them quit and trying to make him proud in the stands.”

Alabama led by as many as 31 and won by the largest margin over Kentucky in the history of the series.

“I don’t think Kentucky necessarily quit,” Oats said, “but I think our players were trying to make him. That’s what we were trying to. And I think the students did a great job. We don’t have quarters like football but they did a pretty good job staying through the fourth quarter today. I think he was pretty happy with that, too.”

Alabama improved to 13-2 and 3-0 in the SEC after beating the unranked Wildcats.

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