'Biggest home game' ever: Bruce Pearl, Auburn trying to make history against Kentucky

AUBURN – Anyone that knows Bruce Pearl knows he loves history, respects history, and has an appreciation of historical happenings. It’s one of the reasons he loves the challenge of building Auburn’s basketball program.

Inside the Auburn basketball locker room, there’s an “AU” logo. And around that logo, it says, “make history.” Auburn has made history before.

Sonny Smith and the Tigers finished inside the Associated Press Top 25 five times in six seasons from 1982-83 through 1988-89, including five straight NCAA Tournaments during that time. Then, in 1998-99 and 1999-2000, Auburn won a regular season SEC championship and made two NCAA Tournaments, including being awarded a No. 1 seed. There was more run by the 2002-03 team led by Marquis Daniels to the Sweet Sixteen, losing to eventual champion Syracuse, but that’s about it.

“We don’t make history every year, but we have the last four or five years,” Pearl said. “You want to be able to leave your mark. You spend your career trying to make history. It matters. It stands the test of time.”

That is, until Pearl arrived. Since, the Tigers have won a regular season SEC title, the SEC Tournament championship, and made a run to the school’s first Final Four.

No. 2 Auburn has another historic opportunity on Saturday against No. 12 Kentucky. It’s the first game between top-12 teams in the 12-year history of Auburn Arena. Standing-room-only tickets are nearing $300. Simply put, Auburn men’s basketball has never hosted a regular season basketball of this importance.

“It’s the biggest home game since I’ve been coaching, and we’ve played Kentucky here three of four times. There’s a lot at stake here. Take away the rankings, the winner of this game is going to be, at least, in control of the regular season championship moving forward. It’s a huge opportunity for either team to put themselves in position where everybody else is looking up at you.

“We’ve talked about the fact that we don’t want anyone else to do our work. We’ll talk about it against Kentucky for sure. It’s great that on a Saturday, in the middle of January, that all eyes of the country will be on Auburn, Alabama, on CBS, and it’ll be for men’s basketball. That’s something you might not have said a few years ago.”

Auburn enters the game 17-1 overall, 6-0 in league play. Kentucky enters 15-3 overall, 5-1 in league play. All the computer rankings have both these teams inside the top ten, with most giving Kentucky the edge. Saturday’s game will be the fourth top-25 matchup of the season for Auburn next to meetings with No. 21 UConn, No. 16 LSU and No. 24 Alabama.

Each of the last five meetings have been decided by single digits. Kentucky has won two of three, but the two teams have split the last 10 meetings.

The only other comparable regular season game for Bruce Pearl in his career is when No. 2 Tennessee defeated No. 1 Memphis in Memphis in February of 2008 to take over the top spot in college basketball. That was one of the highest rated games in ESPN’s history, but Pearl thinks Saturday will be even more significant.

“The thing about that game, it was a non-conference game. It was one versus two — but it was a non-conference game. While it was exciting, it wasn’t about a championship. If Memphis was in the SEC at that time, it would have even more meaning. The environment was Super Bowl-like. It was a crazy atmosphere, it was fun to be a part of,” Bruce Pearl said.

“This will be the same kind of atmosphere, same kind of fun, but this one actually means more. Both teams are playing for championships.”

If the Tigers win, it would give them a two-game lead over Kentucky, and they’d maintain a three-game lead over the rest of the league, except for Texas A&M, who sits at 4-1 currently. Auburn only plays LSU and Kentucky once, and would already hold head-to-head wins over both, if the Tigers come out on top against the Wildcats.

[Kentucky respects, but doesn’t fear Auburn, Oscar Tshiebwe says]