Kentucky basketball continues pursuit of perfection against Auburn
The lone undefeated team left in men’s D1 hoops will take the floor again tonight, as the Kentucky basketball squad looks to continue their quest for a perfect season, and on paper, tonight’s a good night for that to continue.
The Auburn Tigers hobble into Rupp Arena tonight, coming in with a 12-14 overall record and a 4-9 SEC mark. The Tigers had lofty goals in the first year of Bruce Pearl and have, to put it nicely, fallen well short of the instant turnaround of the program some thought…but things aren’t going too terrible down on the Plains.
Auburn has some solid conference wins – Mizzou, South Carolina, LSU and Georgia – and in a majority of their most recent losses, they’ve let the game slip away late. The Tigers’ offense is surprisingly potent, and is lead by K.T. Harrell, who’s averagging 17.9 points a game. Only Antoine Mason (14.9 ppg) and Cinmeon Bowers (13.1 ppg) are also averaging in double figures.
Kentucky Wildcats
The Cats have won 16 straight meetings over Auburn, but Kentucky has played in some close games that they had no business being close in and conference play, at times, can prove to be wacky, but if the script goes as it should, this should be an easy win for the home team.
A bit of a fun fact – the only time Auburn has ever beaten the #1 team in the basketball nation came in 1988 against Kentucky. So, there’s that.
The one interesting aspect of this game (on paper, at least) is that UK comes in with the fourth best offense in the SEC and Auburn with the fifth. However, the Cats are the best scoring defense in the league (only 55 points allowed per game) while the Tigers are dead last, allowing a hair under 75 points per game.
After the final buzzer, be sure to check back here at Bluegrass Dominion for your post game recap and analysis. Here are tonight’s game details:
Date: Feb. 21st, 2015
Tip-off Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
TV Channel: ESPN
Radio: NewsRadio 630 WLAP (Flagship) (Full list of UK Sports Network affiliates)
Live Stream: WatchESPN.com