First Scouting Report: John Calipari and Bruce Pearl to renew heated personal rivalry
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 22 Kentucky (17-7, 7-4 SEC) will face No. 13 Auburn (19-5, 8-3 SEC) on Saturday, Feb. 17, at Neville Arena (seating capacity of 9,121) on the campus of Auburn University.
The game will tip off at 6 p.m. EST and be telecast by ESPN.
Coach Bruce Pearl’s Tigers obliterated No. 11 South Carolina 101-61 Wednesday night behind 23 points from Jaylin Williams and 21 from Johni Broome.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Auburn 97-23 but the Tigers have won four of the past seven meetings.
As UK head man, John Calipari is 14-6 against Auburn.
Bruce Pearl is 5-7 versus the Wildcats as Auburn head man and is 10-17 overall vs. UK.
Most recent meeting
Oscar Tshiebwe had 22 points and 17 rebounds and Antonio Reeves rifled in 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting, 4-of-7 treys, to lead Kentucky to an 86-54 pasting of Auburn on Feb. 25, 2023, at Rupp Arena.
Jaylin Williams had 13 points to pace the Tigers.
Power rankings
In the Pomeroy Ratings, Auburn is No. 5, Kentucky is No. 27.
The NCAA NET rankings have Auburn No. 3, Kentucky No. 25.
Know your foe
1. Auburn’s Neville Arena (formerly Auburn Arena) might be the toughest road venue in the SEC. The Tigers are unbeaten (13-0) there this season and have gone 43-2 at home over the past three years.
Kentucky has lost three in a row and five of its last six at Auburn.
2. Former Morehead State star Johni Broome is having an All-SEC caliber season for Auburn. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound senior leads the Tigers in scoring (16.0 points per game), rebounding (8.6) and blocked shots (2.4). The Plant City, Florida, product is shooting 55% overall, 34% on treys and 60.8% from the foul line.
Last season, Broome had 12 points, one rebound and one assist in Auburn’s loss to Kentucky in Lexington.
In 2020-21, Broome was the freshman star (13.8 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.9 blocks) who led Morehead State to the OVC Tournament title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
3. Dating back to the days when Bruce Pearl was coach at Tennessee (2005 through 2011) and John Calipari was head man at Memphis (2000 through 2009), there has always been ample competitive friction between the two coaches,
The most memorable meeting between Calipari and Pearl came on Feb. 23, 2008, when Pearl’s No. 2-rated Tennessee team beat Calipari’s No. 1 Memphis squad 66-62 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.
It was the only game Memphis lost that season until falling, 75-68 in overtime, to Kansas in the 2008 NCAA Tournament championship game.
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