Auburn preparing to face sharpshooting Kentucky offense

In a vacuum, this truly is just another game for Auburn.

If you ignore the names, this is just a matchup between a team near the top of the SEC and one that is in sixth and fighting for a double bye.

So again, in a vacuum, this is just another game for Auburn. But that's not how any of this works.

College Gameday is coming to town along with Kentucky, so despite the Wildcats' recent struggles, the buzz on campus is palpable.

"Just like any other Friday afternoon here on the Plains, Jay Bilas is on the main floor and there are 1,000 kids camping out in Jungleville," said Bruce Pearl. "You can feel the energy on campus."

When Auburn and Kentucky tip off at 5 p.m. CT, it will have been exactly a month since the Wildcats' last win over a top-50 team in the NET.

It's been a struggle for the Cats who have lost four of their last seven.

Despite this, Pearl, who has five wins over Kentucky since 2018, knows how important beating the Wildcats truly is.

"Well, I mean Kentucky is still the gold standard in our league," Pearl said. "They always will be. That's never going to change. If you want to be relevant in the world of college basketball (and) if you want to be relevant in the SEC, you've got to beat Kentucky every now and then."

Kentucky has struggled, but it hasn't been due to its offense. The Wildcats' offense is No. 6 on KenPom and ranks in the 99th percentile on Synergy averaging 1.05 points per possession.

The Wildcats have an extremely efficient offense as they are top 10 in the country in effective field goal percentage (56.7 percent) and turnover percentage (13.4) while shooting 40.7 percent from deep, the best mark of the John Calipari era.

"Kentucky's really good," Pearl said. "They're one of the best offensive teams in the country. They have five guys averaging double-digit scoring, four guards. They're a really tough cover."

"This is the best 3-point shooting team that John Calipari's had in my opinion. There's about three or four guys out there that, if they can see it, they can make it, making them a really, really tough cover."

On Wednesday, Auburn smoked a South Carolina team that was one of the slowest teams in the country. Kentucky is the complete opposite as it is No. 12 in adjusted tempo compared to South Carolina which is No. 355.

Kentucky is really good when it pushes pace as it averages 1.137 points per possession (PPP) in transition ranking in the 86th percentile.

So despite the two matchups being polar opposites, Auburn isn't changing how it plays.

"We can't play at a different team's speed," said Tre Donaldson. "We've got to play Auburn basketball. I feel like when we play Auburn basketball, we're at our best. I feel like as a team we can't play to another team's speed. We've got to play Auburn basketball and live with the results."

So where is Kentucky getting its offense from? The vast majority comes from its guards.

Antonio Reeves, DJ Wagner, Rob Dillingham and DJ Wagner all average above 11 points per game along with Tre Mitchell who isn't expected to play on Saturday.

Reeves has himself in the discussion for SEC Player of the Year and one look at his stats shows why.

Reeves is averaging 19.4 points per game on a true shooting of 62.8 percent. He is shooting 43.7 percent from deep on just under six attempts.

Per Synergy, Reeves is averaging 1.24 PPP on jump shots and 1.37 PPP on catch-and-shoot looks, both ranking in the 95th percentile.

"Reeves has always killed us," Pearl said. "He’s a big, big, big, long, physical guard. Really shoots it. He’s improved his float game, his mid-range game."

Dillingham is another elite shooter as he is at 14.8 points per game with a true shooting of 59.7 percent. He shoots 44.7 percent from deep and ranks in the 94th percentile on jump shots averaging 1.21 PPP.

"Dillingham is a one-man scoring machine," Pearl said. "He scores like I breathe. He’s a very, very dangerous microwave type of a player."

Dillingham and Reeves are elite shooters, but neither is at the level of Sheppard.

Sheppard is shooting 52 percent from deep on 4.3 attempts per game. He is in the 99th percentile in both regular jump shots and catch-and-shoot shots. He has a true shooting of 69.1 percent which is No. 6 in the country.

"He’s a dynamic point guard, great shooter, great playmaker, has great patience and poise," Pearl said. "Already a Kentucky favorite."

As great as Kentucky is offensively is how bad it is defensively.

The Wildcats' adjusted defensive efficiency is outside the top-100 on KenPom.

In their five losses since conference play began (Gonzaga included), the Wildcats allowed an average of 92.4 points per game.

Kentucky's saving grace is its length and rim protection in the front court.

Like Florida, Kentucky has a lengthy front court led by Ugonna Onyenso, who is averaging 3.2 blocks per game.

"They have great length, they do a good job protecting the rim," Pearl said. "We struggled against Florida's length and we're going to have to find a way to not let Kentucky's length have the same impact on us that Florida's length did."

Overall, it's a big game for Auburn both in terms of who it's playing and the fact that every game matters if it wants to win the SEC. But also, it's another game for the Tigers to prove itself to the college basketball world.

"They say all these one-and-done guys, they're projected lottery picks and stuff like that," Donaldson said. "Me as a guard and me wanting to fulfill my dreams of playing in the NBA, I look at it as an opportunity."