In a season that has seen much inconsistency, the tallest test of Auburn’s basketball season stands in front of them.
That test is a Saturday matchup with 26-0 No.1 Kentucky Wildcats in Rupp Arena.
Head coach Bruce Pearl said that he has tried to adequately prepare his team for the kind of atmosphere they’ll be entering Saturday night.
“I told them this is the biggest on-campus facility in the country,” Pearl said. “There is not a floor we will play on all year long with as much history and tradition. There is not a building that will be as loud or as full of people that know the game.”
As he has all season, Pearl once again said that size will the biggest problem for the Tigers, but that issue will be more magnified against Kentucky than it has all season.
“We have an opportunity to represent Auburn and to see if we can find a way to keep them on the perimeter and defend our rim, make shots,” Pearl said. “And those fans will appreciate the smallest team in the league, and probably one of the smallest teams in the big five conferences going up against the largest team in perhaps the history of college basketball.”
A large part of that size problem Kentucky imposes on challengers comes from junior forward Willie Cauley-Stein, who stands at 7’0 and averages nine points and six rebounds per game.
“He has a bit of a niche as far as the ability to defend, rebound, and block shots,” Pearl said of Cauley-Stein. “The fact that he can guard so many positions just says so much about his future.”
Even with the odds stacked so highly against his team, Pearl said he has been pitching the game as a chance to do something truly special in front of national audience.
“You just have to approach it as a real opportunity,” Pearl said. “That is one of the great things about being in the SEC. Why did Antoine Mason come to Auburn? He could have gone to Providence or a couple other places in the east. Part of it is probably that he wanted to play at Rupp (Arena) because of that experience.”
Should the Tigers leave Lexington with a victory Saturday, it would be an upset for the ages. Pearl said he wants his team to be motivated, but he also is a realist.
“I try to keep it 100 percent real,” Pearl said. “I try. For better or worse I try to tell you what I think. To be honest with my team, I said I think we can game-plan in such a way that in 40 minutes there isn’t
anybody in the league that we can’t beat short of Kentucky. I don’t want any of my players to feel like I won’t tell them what I really think. To beat Kentucky would take an extraordinarily super human effort from a standpoint of making shots, controlling tempo, not turning the ball over and no margin for error at the foul line. They (Kentucky) are going to have to be off. A lot of things have to happen.”
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