Korvotney Barber watched from a seat on the Auburn bench, a cast on his broken left hand, as Vanderbilt’s A.J. Ogilvy torched the undersized Tigers on two separate occasions last season.

Both times Auburn went home defeated, the second of which ended its season. Ogilvy scored 27 points in Vanderbilt’s 93-82 win over Auburn in the first round of last year’s SEC tournament.

Barber took notes.

“He was a big guy. He’s very skilled,” Barber said. “He’s not really athletic, for real. He’s like (Kentucky bigman) Patrick Patterson, but not as athletic as Patrick Patterson.”

OK, so maybe all the tidbits aren’t entirely glowing.

Barber, the man who will bear the most responsibility for Ogilvy’s production today at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, said Auburn can contain the
6-foot-11 sophomore from Australia.

It’s just a matter of making him sweat and exposing his alleged lack of athleticism.

“You just try to wear him down, try to run him, try to use our quickness and get him out on ball screens and stuff,” Barber said. “He’s not real quick on his feet, so you try to get him out away from the goal.”

Though Barber compared Ogilvy to Patterson — then didn’t — Auburn would definitely benefit from an un-Patterson like performance. The chiseled
Kentucky forward scored 21 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in the Tigers’ 73-64 loss in Lexington earlier this month.

While Patterson will hunker down in the paint and use his body and athleticism to wear out his opponent, Ogilvy can be spotted anywhere on the court, from right underneath the hoop to the top of the perimeter. Ogilvy isn’t exactly a 3-point threat, but he’s shown the ability to knock one down from time to time.

“He’s just very versatile,” reserve forward Johnnie Lett said. “So you’ve got to defend two, possibly three things and just have got to play him smart, play him hard.”

Ogilvy’s and Patterson’s respective games, build and athleticism are definitely of the apples-to-oranges variety, but the Commodores’ biggest weapon can certainly take over a game, Lebo said.

“He is a load in there. He is an angle guy. He is a high I.Q. post guy,” Lebo said. “As good as he is offensively, we have to do something to make him defend on the other end a little bit.

“He’s not a great athlete, but he is adequate there.”

Ogilvy has been hampered by a heel injury since late December, and the Commodores’ play has subsequently faltered. In his last two games, Ogilvy, noticeably hampered by the injury, is a combined 1-for-8 from the field with 7 points.

Vanderbilt comes into today’s game 1-5 in the SEC and in desperate need of a win to stay relevant in the much-tougher SEC East. Even with four freshmen set to be in the regular rotation, the Commodores were picked to finish fourth in the division.

Lebo said Vanderbilt’s struggles all come back to Ogilvy.

“When he struggles like that — and they are really young on the perimeter — they have a hard time scoring the basketball,” Lebo said. “They haven’t shot it like Vanderbilt teams recently.”

Today’s matchup with Vanderbilt begins a stretch of four out of five SEC games at home.

“We’ve got to try to get all these home games, because it’s hard on the road in the SEC,” Barber said. “So we’re going to try to win all these games at home just to have a pretty good record when we go on the road.”

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Auburn (13-7, 2-3 SEC) vs. Vanderbilt (12-8, 1-5)
Where: Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum
When: 1 p.m
TV/Radio: None/WXMA 97.7 FM
This and that: The Commodores have lost four straight and five of their last six … Vanderbilt ranks third in the SEC in scoring defense (62.8 points per game). Auburn is first (61.5) … Vanderbilt leads the all-time series 78-51 and is 7-6 in the last 13 meetings. Jeff Lebo is 2-5 against the Commodores. Auburn has won four of the last five at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum … Auburn has lost 12 straight to Eastern Division foes, the last win coming two years ago to the day.
Projected starters Auburn: F Korvotney Barber (12.4 ppg, 9.1 rpg), G Rasheem Barrett (7.4 ppg, 2.7 rpg), G DeWayne Reed (14.0 ppg, 4.0 apg), G Quantez Robertson (6.7 ppg, 4.6 rpg), G Tay Waller (12.1 ppg, 2.7 rpg)
Projected starters Vanderbilt: C A.J. Ogilvy (14.4 ppg, 6.7 rpg), F Steve Tchiengang (3.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg), G Jermaine Beal (12.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg), G George Drake (5.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg), G Jeffery Taylor (12.7 ppg, 6.4 rpg)