No matter who's on the floor, Auburn has guys who 'are all capable of putting up 20 (points).'

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl has run with a tight seven-man rotation through 15 SEC games. Those top seven players all see 19.9 minutes per game or more and only one has missed games (just two) due to injury. Six of those seven average double figures in scoring, which helps explain Auburn’s top-ranked offense. No other Tiger player averages more than nine minutes per SEC outing.

Regardless of who is on the court, Pearl always has plenty of scoring options at his disposal.

“There’s a lot to see that makes them so good. Bruce is doing his thing, right?” Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said Friday. “He keeps it really, really simple and puts guys in a position to play where they’re really familiar with what they’re doing and they’re really good at it. He’s got five guys on the floor that are all capable of putting up 20 (points) on any given night. They’re incredible shot-makers. They make really, really hard shots.”

Johni Broome, a top candidate for National Player of the Year, is clearly the straw that stirs the drink. He leads the team in scoring at 19.4 points per SEC game, nearly seven more than Auburn’s second leading scorer. But even the lone Tiger who doesn’t average in double-digits, Dylan Caldwell, has found success this season. He dropped 18 points on Memphis back in November. Caldwell is actually the only one among Auburn’s top seven who hasn’t reached the 20-point mark this season.

Auburn players SEC-only PPG

• Johni Broome: 19.4 PPG (overall season-high: 31)
• Chad Baker-Mazara: 12.7 PPG (overall season-high: 22)
• Miles Kelly: 11.9 PPG (overall season-high: 22)
• Denver Jones: 10.9 PPG (overall season-high: 21)
• Chaney Johnson: 10.3 PPG (overall season-high: 26)
• Tahaad Pettiford: 10.9 PPG (overall season-high: 24)
• Dylan Caldwell: 4.4 PPG (overall season-high: 18)

Broome has 14 games this season with 20 or more points, easily a team-high. Pettiford has done it three times, Baker-Mazara, Kelly, and Johnson have all done it twice, and Jones has done it once. Like Pope said, Kentucky won’t be able to let any of Auburn’s players shoot open shots — outside of Cadwell, that is, who is more of a rebounder and defender than individual scorer.

But what Caldwell lacks in scoring, he makes up for in other areas. Starting alongside Broome in the frontcourt, the two play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses to near-perfection. Those two combine to average 15.7 rebounds per SEC game, 6.7 of those coming on the offensive end. They also combine for 4.6 assists per SEC contest.

“Their frontline is really, really impactful on the offensive glass,” Pope added. “They have a physicality and a creativity to their game that is pretty special.”

Kentucky’s defense has improved dramatically over the last several games, but Auburn is a whole different kind of beast. We’ll see how Pope gameplans for the Tigers’ many scoring talents come Saturday’s tipoff.

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