Will it take another superhero for Kentucky basketball to upset No. 1-ranked Auburn?
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Game day: No. 17 Kentucky 83, Oklahoma 82
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.
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So Double-Oh (My) Otega Oweh threw on his cape, placed his teammates squarely on his shoulders, and led the Kentucky Wildcats to a heart-stopping 83-82 victory over his old team, the Oklahoma Sooners, in Norman on Wednesday night.
Not to dim the glow of Oweh’s heroic effort — the junior guard scored UK’s final 18 points, including the game-winner with 6.1 seconds remaining — but there is this little thing called the next game.
Bruce Pearl has entered the chat.
Pearl’s No. 1-ranked Auburn Tigers enter Rupp Arena on Saturday for a 1 p.m. matchup with Mark Pope’s No. 17-ranked Wildcats in the latest in a long line of marquee SEC matchups. ABC has the television coverage.
Those are the same Tigers who are 26-2 overall, including a 14-1 SEC mark, good enough for a two-game lead in the conference standings with three games remaining. And it’s the same Tigers who blitzed poor Ole Miss 106-76 on Wednesday in the loveliest little village on the plains.
Auburn forward Johni Broome added to his national player of the year credentials with 24 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots in 31 minutes. You remember Broome. Started his career playing for Preston Spradlin at Morehead State. Now in his third season at Auburn, Broome is averaging 18.8 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists. If Duke’s fab freshman Cooper Flagg doesn’t take POY honors, Broome will.
Despite Broome’s brilliance, it was Oweh who may have turned in the conference’s most outstanding performance of the season on Wednesday, however. The ex-Sooner scored 28 points on his old home floor. He made the Cats’ final nine buckets, capped by a twisting/turning effort that fell through the net for the game-winner after Oweh navigated through bumper-to-bumper paint congestion.
The win improved Kentucky to 19-9 overall and 8-7 in the SEC and one step closer to avoiding a first-round Wednesday game in the SEC Tournament (March 12-16) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
It also set the stage for UK’s Saturday showdown, the 11th game this season the Cats have gone against a top 25 opponent. The Cats are 7-3 in those matchups, including 5-2 against AP top 10 foes.
Auburn is a tougher task, however. The Tigers aren’t good, they are really good. They are not just No. 1 in the NCAA NET rankings, they are 15-2 in Quad 1 games. That’s five more Quad 1 victories than any other team. Alabama is second at 10-5. Kentucky is 9-8.
This is Pearl’s best team in his 11 years at Auburn, even better than the 2018-19 edition that lost to eventual champion Virginia 63-62 in the Final Four. It’s better than his 2021-22 outfit, a No. 2 NCAA Tournament seed that was upset by Miami 79-61 in the second round.
Saturday’s coaching matchup will be a bit different, as well. Pearl and former UK coach John Calipari famously did not exchange Christmas cards, their feud dating back to Pearl’s days at Tennessee and Calipari’s tenure at Memphis. (The state wasn’t big enough for the both of them.) Calipari credited Pearl’s players with every Tennessee/Auburn win. When UK beat the Tigers last year at Auburn, an elated Calipari did the postgame press conference standing up.
What will it take for Kentucky to pull the upset on Saturday? For starters, UK’s defense needs to look more like the one we saw the five games before the second half at Oklahoma. The Sooners shot 57.7 percent from the floor over the final 20 minutes. They nailed seven of their 13 attempts from 3-point range.
Meanwhile, Auburn owns the nation’s most efficient offense, according to Ken Pomeroy’s computer numbers. The Tigers are fifth nationally in turnover percentage. Georgia Tech transfer Miles Kelly is 60-of-154 on his 3-point attempts. Keep an eye on the excitable Chad Baker-Mazara, who is averaging 12.7 points per game.
For the most part, Kentucky has been able to protect its home floor in its first year under Pope. The Cats own Rupp wins over then No. 6 Florida (106-100) and then No. 5 Tennessee (75-64) while taking then No. 4 Alabama to the wire before losing (102-97).
Can the Cats take down the nation’s No. 1? Another superhero effort might be required.
This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 11:28 AM.
