I wrote a story advancing Auburn's game at Vanderbilt this afternoon. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — Ask the casual basketball fan who the best teams in the SEC East are and the answers are predictable.

No. 2 Kentucky, rightfully so, pops up first. Tennessee, with the affable Bruce Pearl, likely comes in second.

Vanderbilt probably doesn’t enter the conversation, although Auburn coach Jeff Lebo thinks it should.

“They didn’t get the hype maybe from the media,” he said, “but I think from the coaches in the league, we all knew that they were going to be a very good basketball team.”

Auburn (10-9, 1-3 SEC) will have a difficult task when it travels to Nashville, Tenn., this afternoon for a 1:30 game against the red-hot Commodores. Vanderbilt (14-3, 3-0), which has won eight straight, is quietly one of four remaining unbeatens in SEC play, joining the aforementioned Kentucky and Tennessee, plus Mississippi State.

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