Three active SEC basketball coaches have more than 600 career wins in 2023-24, a fact that speaks to the improved quality of the sport in what’s sometimes regarded dismissively as just a football conference.

This weekend, two of those coaches will face off.

Saturday’s game between No. 12 Auburn and No. 20 Kentucky at Neville Arena is more than just a matchup of top-20 teams in one of the sport’s most charged and raucous venues. It will be the latest meeting between two of college basketball’s most successful coaches over the past 30 years — Auburn’s Bruce Pearl and Kentucky’s John Calipari — a pair of towering figures in the profession whose careers have intersected with each other at several notable moments.

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The two have met annually since Pearl took over as Auburn’s coach in 2014, but have a shared history that stretches back even further, when Pearl was at Tennessee and Calipari was at Memphis. Pearl on Friday was asked about his relative success vs. Kentucky, to which he responded the Wildcats remain the class of the SEC:

"Well, I mean Kentucky is still the gold standard in our league. They always will be," Pearl said. "That's never going to change. If you want to be relevant in the world of college basketball (and) if you want to be relevant in the SEC, you've got to beat Kentucky every now and then. We were able to do it my second year, which obviously gave us some wind in our sails and a little bit of hope that we could get this thing going."

As they prepare for their latest encounter, with the surging Tigers hosting the sputtering Wildcats, here’s a look at the history between Pearl and Calipari:

Bruce Pearl record vs. John Calipari at Auburn

Despite its ascent to becoming one of college basketball’s top programs nationally under Pearl, Auburn actually has a losing record against Kentucky and its hall-of-fame coach.

Pearl is 6-8 against Calipari’s Wildcats during his nearly decade-long stint with the Tigers. The series has been more even in recent years, though, with Auburn posting a 3-3 record against Kentucky over the past four seasons.

Bruce Pearl record vs. John Calipari

The matchups between Pearl and Calipari didn’t just begin when the former got to Auburn, however. The two have seen their teams square off 23 times over a span of nearly 20 years, with Calipari owning a 14-9 advantage in those contests.

Before being hired at Auburn, Pearl coached in the SEC for six seasons at Tennessee, the last two of which overlapped with the beginning of Calipari’s tenure at Kentucky. The Wildcats won four of their five games against the Pearl-led Vols.

They had matched wits even before then and did so in the same state, with Pearl at Tennessee and Calipari at Memphis, where he coached from 2000-09 before heading off to Kentucky. The Tigers and Vols split their four Pearl-against-Calipari meetings, 2-2.

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Best Bruce Pearl games vs. John Calipari

Here are some of the more memorable games between Pearl and Calipari’s teams:

Tennessee 66, Memphis 62 (2008)

In a matchup of the nation’s two highest-ranked teams, the No. 2 Vols went on the road and handed No. 1 Memphis their loss of the regular season. Pearl’s team, which won despite getting only seven points from star guard Chris Lofton, earned the first No. 1 ranking in program history the following week.

Tennessee 74, Kentucky 65 (2010)

A star-studded Wildcats team led by freshmen phenoms John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins entered the matchup with a 27-1 record and No. 2 national ranking, but fell behind by 14 in the first nine minutes and never recovered in a loss to the No. 18 Vols.

Kentucky 82, Auburn 80 (2019)

The No. 12 Tigers trailed the No. 14 Wildcats by 14 with nine minutes remaining, but mounted a furious comeback and took the lead on a Jared Harper 3-pointer with 32 seconds remaining. Kentucky’s Tyler Herro, however, made two free throws on the other end and Auburn failed to convert on two opportunities to tie the game or take the lead in the final 10 seconds.

Auburn 77, Kentucky 71 (2019)

Fewer than three months later, the Tigers got their revenge for that January home loss — and did so in a game with much higher stakes. After getting a game-tying layup with 37 seconds remaining in regulation, Harper scored 12 of Auburn’s 17 points in overtime to defeat the No. 2 seed Wildcats and send the No. 5 seed Tigers to the first Final Four in program history.

Auburn 80, Kentucky 71 (2022)

At No. 2 in the Coaches Poll, their highest ranking in more than 20 years, the Tigers put on a show for a crowd that included students who had camped outside Neville Arena the night before the game. After falling behind by 10, Auburn rallied, getting 19 points from Walker Kessler and 17 from K.D. Johnson to knock off the No. 12 Wildcats.

Richard Silva contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Bruce Pearl vs. John Calipari: All-time record, best games between coaches