No. 2 Kentucky hopes to continue dominance of Auburn

The second-ranked Kentucky Wildcats take aim at their eighth straight win, and 16th in 17 opportunities this season as they pay a visit to the Auburn Tigers for a SEC encounter on Wednesday night.

Kentucky beat up on visiting South Carolina last Saturday to claim its first conference victory of the season, and the 'Cats improved to 61-18 all-time in SEC openers, and they have now won 45 consecutive home games -- the longest current streak in the country. With regard to their road resume', this bout marks only their second true road clash of the 2011-12 campaign, and their previous trip resulted in a 73-72 loss at Indiana -- the only setback for coach John Calipari's club thus far.

Auburn opened the season at 4-0 and actually won eight of its first nine games, but the wheels have fallen off the past few weeks as the team has dropped four of its last six. Back-to-back blowout losses to Florida State, and Vanderbilt in the SEC opener, have fans wondering just how good the team really is, but there is reason for optimism tonight as even though the Tigers are taking on the No. 2 team in the land, they are 9-0 at home this season. Auburn lost its fifth straight SEC opener and eighth of its last nine, while losing its sixth consecutive game to Vanderbilt.

Kentucky has dominated the series with Auburn over the years, laying claim to an 85-17 advantage. The Wildcats have won 12 straight over the Tigers, and 26 of the last 27 meetings overall.

In many people's eyes, Kentucky is the best team in the country. It's hard to argue that point when you consider the team has outscored the opposition by an average of 21.8 ppg while shooting nearly 50 percent from the field and winning the battle on the boards by nearly nine rpg. The only team in the nation to feature six double-digit scorers, the Wildcats have so many weapons that it's difficult for foes to concentrate their efforts on just one or two guys. Doron Lamb (14.6 ppg) currently sits atop UK's scoring chart, but Anthony Davis (12.7 ppg, 10.6 rpg) has made an early case for SEC Player of the Year as he has excelled at both ends of the court, and has done so pretty much on a nightly basis. In the recent win over South Carolina, it wasn't the aforementioned duo who led the 'Cats, but rather the tandem of Terrence Jones and Marquis Teague who proved too much for the Gamecocks to handle, as they scored 20 and 17 points, respectively. Of course, Davis and Lamb contributed, with the former logging yet another double-double with 12 points and 10 boards, and the latter chipping in 10 points. Overall, Kentucky shot a sizzling 59.2 percent from the field, while holding USC to just 39.1 percent.

Despite being five games over .500 at the moment, Auburn is scoring almost as many points as it is allowing, averaging 66.2 ppg on 43.8 percent field goal efficiency, while yielding 64.6 ppg with foes hitting their three-pointers nearly 35 percent of the time. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they put forth their worst offensive effort of the season in the league lidlifter at Vanderbilt over the weekend, falling to the Commodores by 30 points. Vandy outshot Auburn from the field 44.9 percent to 27.3 percent, and the Commodores drained 13 threes compared to just three for the Tigers. Vandy also won the rebounding battle, 42-34. Not one player scored in double digits for Auburn, as Chris Denson came closest with seven points. Through the first 15 games, Kenny Gabriel (11.9 ppg, 7.8 rpg) leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, but he finished with just two points and three boards in 24 minutes of action against Vanderbilt. The starters for Auburn accounted for only eight field goals in the embarrassing setback, shooting a paltry 21 percent along the way.