Kentucky vs Auburn......A Preview

Lwcat
WT Administrator

Kentucky vs Auburn 1/11/12 Wednesday 8PM (SEC Network)
UK leads series 85-17

Auburn Tigers

Location: Auburn, Ala
Enrollment: 24,078
Arena: 9,600

Head Coach: Tony Barber
Career Record: 93-72 (56.4%) 5 seasons
At Auburn: 11-20 (35.5%) 1 season

2010-11 Record: 11-20
2010-11 SEC Record: 4-12
Postseason Record: None

2011-12 Record: 10-5
2011-12 SEC Record: 0-1

Auburn 84 McNeese St. 62
Auburn 68 Kennesaw St. 55
Auburn 78 Nicholls St. 57
Auburn 72 Arkansas-Pine Bluff 59
Seton Hall 81 Auburn 59
Auburn 52 S. Florida 40
Auburn 84 N. Florida 71
Auburn 76 Florida A&M 69
Auburn 65 Hawaii 62
Long Beach St. 64 Auburn 43
UTEP 83 Auburn 76
Auburn 78 Georgia Southern 75
Auburn 67 Bethune-Cookman 41
Florida St. 85 Auburn 56
Vandy 65 Auburn 35

Auburn Stats

PPG-66.2
FG%-43.8%
3 PT.%=32.5%(5.2PG)
FT%-64.7%
RPG-35.0 (+0.5)
APG-13.7
TO’s-14.1
SPG-6.9
BPG-5.9

Probable Starting Lineup

Kenny Gabriel-F 6’8” Sr………………………...11.9 PPG
Rob Chubb-C 6’10” Jr…………………………….9.7 PPG
Varez Ward-G 6’2” Soph………………………....9.2 PPG
Chris Denson-G 6’2” Soph………………………10.7 PPG
Frankie Sullivan-G 6’1” Jr……………………….11.5 PPG

Second year coach, Tony Barbee, welcomes back 4 starters plus transfer from Texas, Varez Ward…..and also 2 other transfers and 3 freshmen. Senior Kenny Gabriel does it all….leading scorer….also, leads in rebounds with 7.8 PG….plus he leads the team in blocks with 41 and steals with 22. Frankie Sullivan leads the Tigers from the perimeter hitting 30-81 for 37% along with Kenny Gabriel and Chris Denson who both hit 37%-38%. Transfer Varez Ward leads the Tigers in assists with 4.1 PG, but struggles from the perimeter hitting only 29%.One problem that coach Barbee certainly wants to correct is to improve the Tigers FT shooting which is a dismal 64.7%

There is optimism that coach Barbee will turn the Auburn program around and thus far there is no question that Barbee has the Tigers playing hard. Auburn had a nice win over Seton Hall, but an ugly loss to Vandy to open the SEC season. Coach Barbee knows that for Auburn to step forward he will need to add a lot more talent.

Kentucky played pretty well in their SEC opener against South Carolina. A huge plus was seeing Terrence Jones play his best game after struggling in recent games. Hopefully, this is the start of Jones returning to form….as the Cats need his toughness in the paint and more scoring. In addition, UK saw an improved Teague who did a nice job in directing the offense while making very few mistakes. Obviously, having Teague effectively run the offense as coach wants is a big key to UK’s future success in the NCAA tourney. Seeing positive comments from Teague along with a solid performance makes coach Cal and UK fans very happy. On the negative side, coach Cal wasn’t happy that the Cats got out rebounded and too often beat for 50-50 balls.

As Cal has said on many occasions…..UK is every team’s Super Bowl. You can bet that Auburn will play hard with great energy…..and despite overall poor fan support…..look for a full house when the Cats come to Auburn. Unquestionably, UK has much more talent than Auburn, but road games are seldom easy…..I look for UK to defeat Auburn by 14 points. GO CATS!