Saturday night’s result wasn’t what the Wildcats were looking for, but there were positives to take away. One of them is something Kentucky fans have been hoping to see over the last several weeks: Andrew Carr finally had his bounce-back performance post-back injury.

Carr had been dealing with back spasms for a good chunk of the season. He only officially missed one game, but the issues that sparked around the turn of the new year lingered for over a month. Early in the season, we saw just how impactful Carr can be — 17 points against Duke and 19 more against Gonzaga stand out. But that was in the fall. We hadn’t seen that version of Carr since his back injury clearly became too much to handle.

He might not be 100 percent healthy quite yet, but his confidence has absolutely returned. Carr finished with 17 points in Kentucky’s 96-83 loss to No. 4 Alabama, his most since that 19-point outing against the Zags. The fifth-year Wake Forest transfer shot 6-9 from the field (3-5 3PT) while adding six rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block in 29 minutes — his most playing time since Jan. 4 against Florida. Carr’s three made triples marked a season-high and tied a career-high.

A more aggressive approach was the main talking point of his performance.

“Definitely wanted to come out and be aggressive,” Carr said postgame. “Coming back, that’s what I’ve been trying to focus on.”

“I thought Andrew was really aggressive and playing hard,” Kentucky head coach Mark Pope added. “He’s made huge strides over the last couple of weeks.