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Auburn Tigers 67, Kentucky Wildcats 91: SEC Semifinal #1 First Impressions

Kentucky was too much for Auburn, moves to 33-0 and sets school record.

By Glenn Logan
Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

The Kentucky Wildcats once again handled the Auburn Tigers, who were significantly undermanned by suspensions, and accomplish two noteworthy goals in the process. First, they have set a new school record for consecutive wins, supplanting the 1954-55 team, who had their winning streak extended into the following season for 32 consecutive games. This 2014 game has eclipsed that streak in a single season.

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The second noteworthy thing is that UK has advanced to the SEC Tournament final for the second straight season, and Kentucky hasn't won this tournament since 2010-11. It may not mean that much, but I'd love to see the Wildcats take that trophy home to Lexington again, where it belongs.

Auburn scrapped, clawed, and did their best. They had almost all their best rebounding on the bench suspended for various reasons. It was never likely that a team whose tallest starter might not be as big as Kentucky's starting guards was going to pull the upset of the year in an arena crammed with Big Blue fans. Kudos to Auburn for the effort. Next year, I suspect, they'll be much better.

Final stats

Observations

  • I thought Kentucky did a decent job on the glass, but it could've, and probably should've been better.

  • 56% shooting is pretty good. I thought it could've been better, but it's really hard to complain about that level of shooting.

  • Kentucky turned the ball over too many times for my taste. I think the percentage will be okay, probably around 16-17%

  • Kentucky didn't do a good job of forcing turnovers from Auburn. Auburn generally has trouble taking care of the ball, and UK had only 2 steals and forced only 7 turnovers.

  • For the second straight game, free throw shooting was outstanding, and it was comprehensively so, big guys and small.

  • UK committed too many dumb fouls, really brain-dead ones. They sent Auburn to the line for three free throws twice. They have to get these gratuitous fouling under control.

  • 17 assists on 27 made shots (.63). I guess the low assist rates in the last two games were more due to Florida than Kentucky, based on that.

  • The energy level was very good this game, much better than the game against Florida. Kentucky still plays a little bit down to their competition, but nothing like we saw last year.

  • Kentucky feels like the are moving into the next level of basketball. I see more confidence from every player, more maturity. A few things still remain (see dumb fouls above), but this team looked ready for March today.

We'll have a postmortem later, as always. Kentucky will take on either the Georgia Bulldogs or Arkansas Razorbacks tomorrow at 1:00 PM to determine the SEC Tournament champion. Shortly after that, we'll have the NCAA Tournament selection show, but there is absolutely no mystery in Kentucky's case no matter what happens tomorrow. It would take a case of abject malpractice for Kentucky to be anything other than the #1 seed in the Midwest, and will doubtless play their first round in the YUM! Center in Louisville.

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