Kentucky's defense put the clamps on Auburn's high-powered offense

Coming into Saturday night, the No. 13 Auburn Tigers had been mostly scorching opposing teams on offense, especially when the venue was set at Neville Arena. Auburn had been averaging 86.8 points per game at home before the weekend started. They hadn’t lost at home all season (13-0).

But Kentucky, a team still desperately searching for answers on defense, but making progress, shut down Auburn from start to finish.

In the Wildcats’ 70-59 win, Auburn shot just 30.9 percent from the field and went 4-22 (18.2 percent) from beyond the arc. They came in averaging 83.1 points — 20th in the nation — on 46.9 percent overall shooting this season. Not only are 59 points the Tigers’ fewest at home in two seasons, but it was also the program’s second-fewest of the entire season (58 on the road against Mississippi State).

Auburn’s 30.9 percent overall clip was easily its worst of 2023-24. It was also the Wildcats’ best defensive performance in that regard, as well. Kentucky out-physicaled an Auburn team known for playing with an aggressive edge. UK also had more rebounds (39-36) and points in the paint (36-26). Keep in mind that Auburn was just a few days removed from dropping 101 points on No. 11 South Carolina.

Calipari says he didn’t change anything about his defense though. For a team that still ranks outside the top 80 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency, putting together back-to-back impressive defensive performances (Ole Miss scored just 63 points in a loss to UK on Tuesday) wasn’t something most fans expected at this stage in the season.

Kentucky defended better against Auburn because that’s what the game called for, according to the head coach. Especially down the stretch, Calipari slowed down the offense to cut down on the Tigers’ possessions. But his players also dug in on defense to a level not yet seen — even if Auburn missed a handful of open looks early on.

“(Auburn) made a run and I wanted them to play defense, instead of letting them get out and go,” Calipari said. “So this will be game-to-game stuff. You feel the game. What do you have to do to win the game? Who needs to be in? Some games it’s this guy, other games it’s another guy.”

Prior to this week, the narrative surrounding Kentucky revolved around the idea that the Wildcats might have to score 100 points every time out to be competitive against quality teams. But Calipari has coached UK to a pair of wins this week by scoring 75 and 70 points, respectively. That’s a far cry from the season-long average of 88.9 points per contest.

The defense is clearly making strides. Calipari has said over and over again the last few weeks about getting 10 percent better on that end of the floor. This sure feels like a 10 percent improvement. When you spend the vast majority of practices dialing in on defense, it’s no wonder the results are showing up on the floor. Kentucky just has to remain consistent moving forward.

“Now, the question will be… The defense, they know they’ve got to get better. They know,” Calipari continued. “They know we’ve got to rebound balls in traffic, we’ve got to do stuff. But, I know there are people that would say stuff to try to hurt this thing, but the reality of it is, what did you see today? Now, what could you write? ‘They’re so bad defensively.’ (Auburn is) a top-10 offensive team.”

You could see the progress Kentucky is making on defense against Ole Miss. The Rebels shot 37.5 percent overall and went 5-22 (22.7 percent) from beyond the arc. It’s difficult to make significant strides in any given area halfway through league play, but the Kentucky players have dedicated themselves to improving on defense — at least for the last two games.

Can they keep it up? Ultimately, it falls on them.

“The coaches can talk however long they want to, but if we don’t lock in defensively and play as one, if we don’t trust each other, we’re not going nowhere,” Sophomore Ugonna Onyenso said postgame. “So we came into the game all focused. We was all focused on defense… So coming in and locking in defensively, that was what we needed and that was how we won the game.”

Watch the latest John Calipari press conference on the KSR YouTube Channel.