On Saturday, Auburn basketball is set to host the Kentucky Wildcats, a program that Bruce Pearl has a 4-6 record against since taking over as the Tigers head coach in 2014.
Heading into the matchup, Auburn is coming off its first SEC win of the season after defeating Georgia. At the same time, Kentucky returns to action after suffering a loss at home to Alabama.
The Wildcats are 4-7 overall and 3-1 in the SEC this season. Kentucky is currently tied for fourth in the conference, and while these Wildcats may not be at the top of the conference, Pearl still sees them as the SEC's standard.
“They’re the benchmark of our league,” Pearl said. “People will measure you on how you perform against the best. You’re playing against the premiere program in our conference, so it’s an opportunity, and it’s an honor when you’re playing against the Wildcats.”
In the Tigers' win against Georgia, Auburn recorded 14 blocked shots, which are the most blocks in a Division I game this season. Calipari’s Wildcats also know how to block shots leading all of Division I with 6.4 blocks per game.
“[Kentucky] leads the country in blocked shots,” Pearl said. “Inside shots, if you don’t have advantage, disadvantage, and you put it up there, that’s a block. It leads out to transition, which has been one of our challenges, getting back into transition.”
Auburn's Kentucky native Justin Powell suffered a concussion in a road loss to Texas A&M on Jan. 2 and has been out since. Pearl says the true freshman shooting guard is still "day-to-day."
“Based on the concussion protocol, his scores had allowed him to get out there Monday and start to move around a little bit,” Pearl said. “He didn’t continue to make progress with his concussion protocol. He needed to be able to do some other things to be in a position for him to play. One of the things, when you get him back, is you move him around a bit to see how he responds. He didn’t respond great to moving around, and so, therefore, you have to shut him back down. He’s still day-to-day.”
Powell has been one of the premier scorers for Auburn this season, averaging 11.7 points per game before going down with the head injury. He was also averaging over six rebounds and nearly five assists per game.
While Powell recovers, another freshman has stolen the show for the Auburn program. Sharife Cooper has shined for the Tigers since being ruled eligible by the NCAA just ahead of the game against Alabama last Saturday.
Through two career games, Cooper is averaging 27 points and 10.5 assists per game.
“Sharife is a self-made player,” Pearl said. “He’s also a really intelligent player. He’s able to see the floor in dimensions that we can’t see. He sees it horizontally, he sees it vertically. It’s like the Matrix.”
The Tigers and Wildcats are set to meet at 1 p.m. CST on Saturday, with the game airing on ESPN.
“We will have to play our best game of the year to beat Kentucky,” Pearl said.
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