Auburn Basketball: 2019-20 keys for Tigers home matchup vs. Kentucky
By Brian Rauf
1) Push the pace
Auburn’s plan of attack is pretty simple.
They have a team full of elite athletes that excel at getting to and finishing around the basket. As a result, they like to play as fast as possible, utilizing their athleticism in transition in hopes of getting a quick, easy basket or to find holes in the opposing defense before they get set.
When the Tigers aren’t able to get out in transition as often as they like, they tend to struggle. Florida was able to successfully turn their game against the Tigers into a half-court battle and won convincingly. A few other teams (South Alabama, Furman, Vanderbilt) nearly pulled off upsets over the Tigers by using this strategy.
Kentucky is obviously more talented than all those teams and they play at a mediocre pace, though a good deal slower than Auburn.
They will want to slow the game down in order to take advantage of their size advantage while also taking the Tigers out of rhythm. Calipari wants to force Auburn to execute their offense in the halfcourt, which can be a struggle for the Tigers because of their last of perimeter shooting.
Auburn can win if they play to their strengths, and that means playing at a faster pace and getting out in transition whenever possible.