Kentucky has played one of the nation's toughest schedules but the Wildcats have yet to take on the SEC's leader in the standings.
That changes on Wednesday night when a floundering Wildcat team riding a rare three-game losing streak travels to Auburn.
Here are 10 things Kentucky fans should know about Auburn with the Wildcats heading to the Plains.
Auburn has a very real home court advantage.
For the fourth straight season, Auburn sold out its home game tickets ... for basketball. Is this a parallel universe? No, but it's a sign of the enthusiasm Bruce Pearl was able to drum up upon arrival, and even sustain amid some bad early seasons. The dedication of those fans is paying off with an unexpected breakthrough season and pundits are starting to talk about Auburn Arena as one of the toughest venues in the SEC.
Although the arena seats only 9,121 fans, many of those fans seem to be hovering right over that court in cozy confines, and it has made for a loud and very real home court advantage that has both flustered opponents and powered the Tigers.
If those crowds have been pumped for opponents to date, it's safe to say they'll be ready for Kentucky.
What FBI investigation?
The college basketball world was rocked by the FBI investigation that went public when Auburn's Chuck Person and assistant coaches at several other schools were arrested on federal charges.
In the aftermath, Tiger stars Austin Wiley and Daniel Purifoy would be indefinitely suspended and later ruled ineligible.
Auburn had already been picked to finish towards the bottom of the SEC (although, as Tennessee has also proven, perhaps we should reexamine the value of preseason projections, or at least our confidence in them), and with those two players out, it looked like a bona fide nail in Pearl's coffin. That's not only because the team appeared to be in shambles, especially after a preseason loss to Barry, a Division II opponent. But also because of Pearl's already less than stellar track record with the NCAA.
Auburn's ascent to the top of the SEC ladder couldn't be more impressive or more surprising given those circumstances. Throw in the fact that it's the best year for SEC basketball in a long time and it just doesn't make sense. It's why Pearl is the likely SEC Coach of the Year, even while he's under heightened scrutiny, and a strong National Coach of the Year candidate.
Tigers would be a 2-seed if the tournament started today.
For the second consecutive year the NCAA Tournament selection committee released a first look at what would amount to a midseason bracket, or how the tournament would look if it started today.
That happened on Sunday, and the Tigers were picked as the tournament's top overall two-seed, which placed them in the Midwest where Xavier is the top seed.
Two-game lead in the SEC.
At 10-2 and with six games remaining, Auburn holds a commanding two-game advantage over Florida and Tennessee, both at 8-4 in the SEC. At 6-6, Kentucky is all but eliminated from the conference's regular season race barring a miracle. Auburn still does have to travel to Florida and Arkansas, but the Tigers will likely be favorites in at least five of their final six SEC games.
Auburn's only regular season SEC championships were in 1960 and 1999, so if Pearl's surprising team can avoid a collapse on the last one-third of the schedule, they'll have an historic achievement regardless of how they perform in the Big Dance.
Tigers bounced back against UGA.
No Bryce Brown, no problem. Auburn won its last game without its top scorer.
Texas A&M notched a major victory at Auburn last week, building a lead and then holding on as the Tigers made a furious comeback attempt late. But if there were any suspicions that the Tigers might be trending downward, they promptly erased those concerns with an impressive 78-61 victory against Georgia over the weekend. That was a road win in Athens and Auburn handled the Bulldogs rather easily in both halves. Jared Harper scored 24 points in 38 minutes of play, and while UGA's Yante Maten scored 20 points, few other Bulldogs were able to gain any traction during the game.
Talented backcourt trio.
Before the season it was clear that if Auburn was going to accomplish anything (and that looked like a major longshot), sophomore guard Mustapha Heron would have to have a big year.
Heron averaged 15.2 points during an impressive freshman season. He hasn't been nearly the three-point shooter he was a year ago (declining from 42-percent to 34-percent), but he's averaging 16.3 points and ripping down 5.4 boards per game. He's also become a better defender.
But in the big picture the real story has been the Tigers' backcourt as a whole. It hasn't been just Heron. Not even close. The team's leading scorer by a hair is Bryce Brown (16.6 PPG), a junior who had been a quality contributor over his first two seasons but has taken his game to a completely different level in the 2017-18 season. Sometimes Brown can be a bit of a gunner and a less than efficient scorer but he's one of the SEC's most dangerous three-point shooters, nailing more than three per game.
Throw in Harper, the 5-foot-10 sophomore point guard who dishes out six assists to go along with 13.3 points (41-percent from deep), and Auburn's backcourt has been too much for most of their foes. Harper has a 3-to-1 assist to turnover ratio on the year. Harper's coming off his season-high in points against Georgia, and just two games ago he contributed 14 points and 14 assists against Vanderbilt.
Harper's teammates have credited him for having an uncanny feel for the game, and knowing when to get the ball to the right player who's got the hot touch.
Blue collar group effort on the glass.
No player in Auburn's rotation is taller than 6'8 and for the most part their production comes from a cast of characters 6'5 and under. As you might expect, this is a team that can sometimes be susceptible to giving up offensive rebounds. But that smaller team ranks 25th in the country in offensive rebounding themselves.
Five Auburn players average five rebounds per game (rounded up), so crashing the glass has been a point of emphasis, a team effort and a mark of pride rather than having one or two dominant post players.
Wiley had been selected to play on John Calipari's Team USA squad because of his physicality and rebounding, in large part, but Auburn has done fine in his absence. Just differently than they might have otherwise.
Deadly from deep.
As a team Auburn is one of the more dangerous three-point shooting squads in college basketball, making 39-percent of their tries beyond the arc (29th). They rank even higher in made threes (10.1, 10th) per game and attempt 26 per game: Almost twice as many as Kentucky throws up.
Brown and Harper are the team's No. 1 and 2 gunners. Heron shoots a lot but doesn't make them at nearly the same rate. But forward Chuma Okeke (44-percent), Anfernee McLemore (38-percent) and Desean Murray (38-percent) are also able to stretch a defense.
They make things happen on defense.
By Ken Pomeroy's numbers, Auburn is a much better offensive team (6th) than defensive team (37th). But the Tigers make things happen on defense.
Auburn ranks 8th in the country averaging 5.8 blocks per game, and 41st in steals per game. Opponents turn the ball over 15.5 times on average against Auburn.
Those active hands and arms leading to deflections, steals, blocks and altered shots play well for a team that's one of the fastest by tempo in college basketball. And when they're gaining extra possessions and quick points the other way for one of the nation's most potent offenses, it doesn't leave the opposition much margin for error. You'd better be strong with the ball and/or shoot really well to keep pace.
Be ready for physical, foul-heavy basketball.
Auburn ranks towards the bottom of the SEC in fouls per game (i.e. the most) and also in opponent free throw attempts. It's a good thing the Tigers have had a season-long rotation that reliably goes nine-deep (and almost never ten), because they will rough up an opponent.
Texas A&M's Billy Kennedy said after his Aggies defeated the Tigers that it took a while for his team to adjust to the physicality of Auburn's defense on the perimeter. So Kentucky's guards can expect to be bodied and contested when they're looking to drive into the lane.
