Mark Pope labels Auburn as the best team in the country

On Saturday, No. 1 Auburn invaded Rupp Arena and walked away with a convincing 94-78 victory. After the game, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope gave credit to the Tigers for their dominant performance against his team.

“Right now, they are the best team in the country,” Pope said. “They punished us tonight, for sure. It’s a real credit to their guys, to their players, and a real credit to coach [Bruce] Pearl and his staff because they do a lot of switching on the fly. There is a lot of communication on the fly.

“There were only small moments in the game where we were able to take advantage of that and they communicate so well together, and they have so much makeup ability that it makes it really difficult. And they also play with tremendous energy. They have length. They are playing elite level basketball. So, just a ton of credit to those guys.”

It wasn’t close between the Tigers and Wildcats. After taking a 4-3 lead in the opening minutes of the game, Kentucky never led again.

Kentucky had no answers for the Tigers, who shot 51.8% from the field and 46.2% from beyond the arc. Miles Kelly especially gave UK trouble. The veteran Auburn guard erupted for a game-high 30 points, knocking down 9-of-his-14 attempts from 3-point range.

Chad Baker-Mazara and Tahaad Pettiford were also excellent, combining for 43 points in the win. Auburn’s defense was equally spectacular on Saturday.

The Tigers held Kentucky to 4-17 (23.5%) shooting from downtown. For reference, the Wildcats are averaging 9.7 made 3-pointers per game this season. Additionally, Auburn squeezed 18 turnovers out of the Wildcats. The Tigers scored 21 points off Kentucky’s turnovers.

With the win, Auburn improved to 27-2 on the season and 15-1 in conference play. The Tigers are 16-2 in Quad 1 matchups this season. Alabama and Tennessee have the second-most Quad 1 wins this season, with 10 each.

With so much success in one of the best conferences in college basketball history, Auburn is setting itself up to have one of the best résumés of all time entering the NCAA Tournament. After becoming Auburn’s latest victim, Mark Pope couldn’t do anything but congratulate the Tigers on their success.

“Auburn played great basketball tonight,” Pope said. “They’ve been playing great basketball all season long. Bruce has done an unbelievable job, not just assembling, but growing and fitting together the pieces on their team. So, congratulations to them.”