No. 14 Auburn hopes to make a national impression against a familiar Kentucky team tomorrow.
This is only the fifth time the teams have face each other when both were ranked in the top 15 at the time of the game. Auburn is 0-4 in the previous four games.
“What an amazing opportunity for our basketball team to be able to match up with them,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said.
Since 1990, the record for this series is 33-3 in Kentucky’s favor.
In the teams’ last three matchups, the home team is 3-0, with Auburn winning its two in Auburn Arena, and Kentucky winning the game at Rupp Arena.
Kentucky’s roster is filled with players who were highly recruited back in their high school days. Auburn was one of the teams going after some of those players, giving Pearl a good amount of familiarity and first-hand knowledge about this roster.
“I think my now being at Auburn for a few years I’ve now seen his players both in high school, out there in AAU ball and now at Kentucky,” Pearl said. “So it’s almost like I have a little bit more knowledge. I saw PJ Washington, I saw him at Findlay cause he was a teammate of Horace Spencer. We recruited Ashton Hagans for years.
“EJ Montgomery was a commit a couple of years ago. So I’ve seen these kids play. Keldon Johnson, we were one of the first teams to offer Keldon Johnson a couple years ago.”
Pearl expects tough matchups for his Tigers against the Wildcats -- ones he hopes his players can step up to and show what his Auburn team is capable of.
Speaking about Hagans, Pearl mentioned that he has had three or more steals in the last five games, and how he will be the one guarding Jared Harper.
“It’ll be a great match up. Jared is still going to have a ton to prove,” Pearl said. “If they’re talking about Ashton as playing his way into the first round again, well Bryce and Jared have an opportunity again to go at those guards to see what they can do.”
Even though this game is surround by hype about if a rising Tigers team can beat a well-established Kentucky program for the third time in four years, Pearl is not focused on the outside noise.
“I don’t see the hype,” Pearl said. “I see 33-3, that’s what I see. With an opportunity to be 33-4, which is hard to do. I don’t think our guys are effected. I think they look at the opportunity to make history.”
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