The Stretch 4: So much history on the line for Auburn at Kentucky
The Tigers are one win away from a title in the toughest SEC season. And their first chance to clinch is at a place where they've only won twice.
Good morning. It’s March. Welcome to the biggest and best month of college basketball — where Auburn is closing in on a historic SEC title and a potential No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
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And, now, here’s this week’s Stretch 4 preview, live from Lexington.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
LEXINGTON, Ky. — If you look at the 10 best teams in Auburn men’s basketball history, per Sports Reference’s Simple Ratings System, you’ll find that six of them played road games at Kentucky.
The 1998-99 team that finished No. 4 nationally lost by 10 at Rupp Arena.
The 2018-19 team that ran to the Final Four lost by 27 there.
The 2019-20 team that had its season cut short due to COVID lost by seven there.
The 1985-86 team that went to the Elite Eight lost by 10 there.
The 2022-23 team that set the tone for current success lost by 32 there.
The 1958-59 that nearly went undefeated lost by 19 there.
Auburn has only won twice in Lexington. The first was when a team that barely broke .500 overall and finished with a losing SEC record — but was led by a sophomore named Charles Barkley — won by eight on January 15, 1983.
The second was when the Tigers visited the top-ranked Wildcats on January 9, 1988, and a junior forward named John Caylor hit one of the biggest shots in school history.
But that’s it. For 37 years and 20 visits to Rupp Arena, Auburn men’s basketball teams — including several of the best the program has produced — have come up empty.
So it’s rather fitting that on Saturday, the Auburn team that is looking like the best has an opportunity to make so much history at Kentucky.
“Can you break the two wins and 31 losses at Rupp Arena record?” Bruce Pearl said Friday, hours before his team boarded a plane for Lexington. “Can you? Or 2-51 in Lexington, Kentucky? It’s just crazy math.”
There’s more than just the program history at stake here. Auburn is just one win away from clinching a championship in what has been called the toughest and deepest conference season in modern college basketball history. Get two wins in the final three — or one more loss from rival Alabama — and that would be an outright title.
The Tigers have been ranked No. 1 in the country for six consecutive weeks. The only other SEC team that has ever done that, of course, is Kentucky.
An Auburn squad unlike any other is about to get a Kentucky road game unlike any other. Instead of the Wildcats being the higher-ranked, clear-cut favorites, as they have been countless times before, the Tigers are the ones actually expected to win in Rupp Arena on Saturday afternoon.
“They’ve always been great, and we’ve usually been not great,” Pearl said. “That’s why it’s 2-31. I’ve brought some really good Auburn and Tennessee teams up to Rupp and not won. Their fans know the game. I’ve never not gone to a game at Kentucky where they didn’t get a good whistle.
“But, they’ve earned it. And I’m sorry but I feel that way. You put 19,000 people every single night, you have a nationally ranked team, they’re gonna get a good whistle at home. They’ve earned it — which means you have to go in there and play great.”
If there was any Auburn team that could feel like it could go into Rupp Arena with real confidence, it’s this one.
The Tigers are led by one of the nation’s best players in Johni Broome and have a double-digit number of seniors on their roster, the majority of which have been with the program for multiple years. This squad is the culmination of what Pearl has built on the Plains.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats are in Year 1 of a brand-new era under former player Mark Pope. Kentucky has a completely different roster from last season, returning 0.0% of the production from the last John Calipari team. Between all the newness and some untimely injuries, Kentucky has had to figure things out on the fly all season long.
However, this Kentucky team is built for big games. Even though they’ve taken nine losses already and is just above .500 in league play, the Wildcats have seven wins over teams inside the top 15 — including Duke and Florida, which are the only teams that have beaten Auburn this season. It’s only lost one Quad 1 game at home.
(In one of the most bizarre quirks of the season, though, Kentucky has not gone a perfect 2-0 in a week of basketball since beating Colgate and Louisville in mid-December. During SEC play, the Wildcats have split all of their two-game weeks. So it doesn’t hurt Auburn that Kentucky is coming into this one after a win at Oklahoma.)
Meanwhile, Auburn has only lost one Quad 1 game away from home, and it’s a perfect 7-0 in league road games. Where a trip to Lexington might conjure fear in others, it’s one of excitement for these championship-minded Tigers.
“This will be my first time playing at Rupp,” senior guard Denver Jones said Friday. “Always seen it on TV. I can’t wait to go in there, execute the game plan and just keep making history with this team.”
So, without any further delay, let’s breakdown this potentially historic matchup between Auburn and Kentucky on Saturday with The Stretch 4 preview.
And, since the game has an early tip-off time, read quickly.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)