Bring it on: Kentucky players welcome another charged road atmosphere
Kentucky has jumped from the frying pan (at Arkansas) to the fire (Texas Tech) to … what comes next?
UK will find out at Auburn on Saturday.
A frenetic atmosphere awaits Kentucky for a third straight Saturday. The question hanging over the game is this: Do the will-to-win victories at Arkansas and Texas Tech steel the UK players for what lies ahead? Or can there be a breaking point?
Bring it on, UK players said Friday.
“I just think it’s fun being in that atmosphere,” EJ Montgomery said.
Immanuel Quickley suggested that a possible problem lies in a game in which UK players do not anticipate a frenzied atmosphere.
“I think it’s easier to get pepped up for that type game,” he said of Kentucky-Auburn. “That next step for our team is after playing a really big game, we’ve got to come back and have the same type energy against a team like Vanderbilt.”
Vandy played at UK on Wednesday and was riding a 24-game losing streak in Southeastern Conference regular-season games. A presumption of victory enveloped Rupp Arena.
By contrast, stats savant Ken Pomeroy gives Kentucky only a 39% chance of winning at Auburn. Of the remaining games, he gives UK less of a chance to win only once: 37% at LSU on Feb. 18.
Auburn, 18-2 overall and 5-2 in the SEC, has won 14 straight home games, and 42 of the last 45.
Much as he did at Tennessee earlier in his career, Coach Bruce Pearl has inspired a palpable excitement around his program.
ESPN’s “College GameDay” show originating from Auburn only further ratchets up the expected exhilaration.
For Pearl, who has made making history a foundational piece of rebuilding Auburn basketball, the television show on campus means something.
“It’s a significant step in the direction of our program,” he said Thursday. “We’ve tried to recruit so much with ‘Come to Auburn and make history.’ Because you go to a lot of great programs, and you can have the great history. But you can’t really make it because it’s already been made so many times.
“Here, you can make it.”
Auburn’s advancement to the 2019 Final Four was another piece of the history Pearl wants to make. No doubt UK fans remember that the Tigers got there by defeating Kentucky in an Elite Eight game.
(Montgomery and Quickley pooh-poohed the notion of Saturday’s game giving Kentucky a chance at payback.)
“This group is trying to make history,” Pearl said of the Auburn team currently ranked No. 17. “We’ve got to play better to be able to do that.”
On Tuesday at Ole Miss, Auburn fell behind by 19 in the second half before rallying to win 83-82 in double overtime.
“These next few games — Kentucky, at Arkansas and then LSU — are going to really (determine) whether or not we have the ability to step up,” Pearl said.
Auburn seemingly hasn’t missed a beat despite the departure of last season’s foundational players: star guards Jared Harper and Bryce Brown, plus versatile forward Chuma Okeke.
Reserve forward Anfernee McLemore acknowledged the big-game atmosphere that’s expected Saturday.
When asked how a player should respond to such game conditions, he said, “Just don’t give into the pressure of the moment. When we played them in the Elite Eight, we came to play good basketball and win.
“As long as no one focuses on the lights of ESPN coming in or anything like that, and we play our brand of basketball, I don’t think we will have a problem as far as executing our game plan.”
After leading UK to victory at Texas Tech, Nick Richards welcomed the opportunity for more basketball drama at Auburn.
Montgomery agreed. “Yes, definitely. It’s a great atmosphere there at Auburn. It’s going to be a very fun game.”
It won’t be easy for Auburn to create more of a combustible environment than existed at Arkansas.
“The floor was actually shaking in warm-ups when the music was playing …,” Quickley said of Bud Walton Arena. “I think it’s really prepared us for Auburn.”
UK Coach John Calipari said his job is to discount thoughts of one atmosphere being tougher than another. And he said he does not indulge himself in thoughts of three intense games on successive Saturdays being welcomed as a means of building the team’s mettle or causing concern about an emotional overload.
Consistency in the approach to games is important, he said. And for Kentucky, a charged atmosphere on the road is business as usual.
“Every game is the biggest game of the year,” Calipari said of the opponent’s outlook about playing UK. “You have to win this game to prove yourself.
“I don’t change. No Knute Rockne (speeches).”
Saturday
No. 13 Kentucky at No. 17 Auburn
When: 6 p.m. EST
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: UK 16-4, 6-1 SEC; Auburn 18-2, 5-2 SEC
Series: UK leads 94-20
Last meeting: The Tigers won 77-71 in overtime in the NCAA Elite Eight on March 31, 2019
This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 4:17 PM.
