WILDCATS

UK-Auburn Glance: Delk to rafters, Barbee vs. Tigers

Kyle Tucker
Louisville

AUBURN (12-14, 4-9 SEC)

AT NO. 1 KENTUCKY (26-0, 13-0)

Game time: 7 p.m.

Site: Rupp Arena (24,000), Lexington, Ky.

Favorite: Kentucky by 26

Series: UK leads 89-17. Last meeting: Kentucky won 64-56 on Feb. 12, 2014 in Auburn, Ala.

Television: ESPN (Mark Jones, Sean Farnham, Kaylee Hartung)

Radio: WHAS-AM 840 (Tom Leach, Mike Pratt, Matt Jones)

AUBURN

Pos. Player Ht. Cl. Rb. Pts.

G-Antoine Mason 6-1 Sr. 2.5 14.9

G-K.C. Ross-Miller 6-0 Sr. 2.2* 6.4

G-KT Harrell 6-4 Sr. 2.9 17.9

F-Jordon Granger 6-8 Jr. 3.4 4.7

F-Cinmeon Bowers 6-7 Jr. 10.7 13.1

* assists per game

Key reserves – Malcolm Canada, G, 6-3, Sr., 5.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.2 apg; Alex Thompson, F, 6-9, So., 2.6 ppg.

KENTUCKY

Pos.Player Ht. Cl. Rb. Pts.

G-Andrew Harrison 6-6 So. 3.9*

G-Aaron Harrison 6-6 So. 2.2 10.8

F-Trey Lyles 6-10 Fr. 5.1 7.4

F-Karl-Anthony Towns 6-11 Fr. 6.3 8.8

C-Willie Cauley-Stein 7-0 Jr. 6.4 9.3

* assists per game

Key reserves – Devin Booker, G, 6-5, Fr., 11.0 ppg, 1.2 apg; Dakari Johnson, C, 7-0, So., 7.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 1.0 bpg; Tyler Ulis, G, 5-9, Fr., 5.3 ppg, 3.7 apg; Marcus Lee, F, 6-9, So., 2.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 0.9 bpg; Dominique Hawkins, G, 6-0, So., 1.8 ppg, 0.8 apg.

STORY LINES

1. Tony Delk's jersey to be retired. The Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, SEC Player of the Year and first-team All-American in 1996 will see his jersey raised to the rafters at Rupp Arena during the Auburn game. Delk is Kentucky's career leaders in 3-pointers (283) and ranks second in steals (201) and fifth in points (1,890). He played in two Final Fours and helped lead the Cats to the '96 national title before playing 10 seasons in the NBA.

"It's great," John Calipari said. "I wish I had coached him, but coached against him; did a pretty good job on him two games (while at Massachusetts in 1996), to be honest with you. But coached against him and then had him on the staff here and every day he walked in, he had a smile on his face. Every day that I asked him, 'What do you think?' he had honest answers. And he was on top of stuff. So when he had opportunity to go into coaching and now the things he's doing (analyst on SEC Network), I couldn't be more happy."

2. Tony Barbee vs. his old team. The only reason Barbee is back with his mentor Calipari, as special assistant to the head coach, is because he was fired as Auburn's coach after last season. He was 49-75 in four years leading the Tigers. Now some of his former players are coming to Rupp Arena, which could be awkward. "Oh, it'll be fine," Barbee told The Courier-Journal earlier this season. "I've moved on from that situation. Obviously they have, too. I've got a lot of friends in that town that I still communicate with. For me, it'll just be another game."

Calipari said he asked Barbee this week how he was feeling about the reunion and was told: "Just go play the game. Don't worry about me. I'm good." But as his former coach and now boss at multiple stops, Calipari does worry about Barbee. "Tony went into a really hard situation and got it almost turned, but when you're almost turning it, you can't afford to have anything go wrong," Calipari said. "Tony had some stuff happen. I still think he will get another job and he'll be great and hopefully I don't have to coach against him, because every time we played it was a war."

Auburn's new leader, exiled Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, had only kind things to say, too. His message to the Tigers: "I want them to be grateful that Coach Barbee brought them to Auburn. Without Coach Barbee seeing something in them, they wouldn't have an opportunity to be a part of this Auburn family. The five guys that returned really feel good about Auburn and their experience here. So I hope that that will be their first thought about Coach Barbee."

3. Tyler Ulis playing through pain. The freshman point guard has been seen wearing ice wraps on his right lower leg several times before and after games and practices this season. He said it's shin splints, but that topic hadn't come up lately as he hasn't missed any time. But, Calipari said Friday, "he's a little bit beat up. He's been beat up for a couple months. His option is take two months off of figure this out. He's taking two days – we gave him four days off or three (and) he was still hurting. So I said, 'Well then, you've got to take two months off or practice.' So, if you're looking at him, he's probably playing at about 75 percent right now with the injury. Now, he plays through it and gets the ice on right after, but he's hurting a little bit."

– Kyle Tucker