Auburn hasn’t beaten Kentucky in Rupp Arena since 1988. Auburn has never swept the season series over Kentucky.

Bruce Pearl is making sure his young Tigers team knows the opportunity presented in front of them on Saturday.

“It would mean a lot. I think people typically judge you based on what you do against the best teams in your schedule and your rivals,” Pearl said Friday. “So obviously it’s a great opportunity for us… Our guys will know the history that’s available to them.”

Pearl knows Saturday is a moment that his players will be able to remember for a while, especially if they can leave Rupp Arena victorious.

“Well, it’s a great challenge,” Pearl said of playing in Rupp Arena. “They’ve got great homecourt advantage with four or five thousand people in the building, and you know, it’s—but the thing I talked to my team about is this: Like Wes Flanigan played at Rupp twice during his career; most of the time, Auburn is going to get Kentucky once every couple of years. If you’re here for three years, you might only get Rupp once. Playing in that building is an honor. It just is.

“That’s one of the great palaces in all of basketball, right there with the Boston Garden. You’re going to remember the games you played there; you just are—like, forever. So, the way I look at it for our guys is it’s an opportunity, because you’re going to remember how you did at Rupp five years, 10 years, 50 years from now.”

When Auburn and Kentucky met in January, it wasn’t pretty. Auburn started out the game shooting 7-of-28 and had just four points after 10 minutes of play.

But Kentucky didn’t start much better and led just 9-4.

Pearl credits his team's energy and effort for being able to beat Kentucky the first time.

But he also knows that they’ll have to do much better if they want to beat them Saturday.

“If we shoot like that again in Rupp, it won’t be close,” Pearl said. “If it wasn’t for our defense and our effort and our energy, we would’ve gotten blown out at home.”

And while Kentucky’s 5-13 record may not show it, Pearl knows the Wildcats have improved since January’s matchup.

“You look at them, they’re playing hard. They’re playing with more confidence,” Pearl said. “They’re playing better than they were earlier in the season as you’d expect young teams to do or new teams to do when they get put together.”

Kentucky and Auburn are set to tip-off from Rupp Arena at noon CST with the game available on CBS.

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