AUBURN | Bruce Pearl calls her a three-headed monster.

No. 16 Purdue is led by junior guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer and junior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn. They account for 58.4 percent of the Boilermaker’s crimes.

No. 2 Auburn will certainly account for the trio in Saturday afternoon’s game in Birmingham.

“Smith is the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year. Analytically, he’s the best point guard in the country,” Pearl said. “He just plays the game the right way. He’s so much fun to watch. No matter how you protect him, he knows the exact opposite of everything you do – and he knows it instinctively.

“Kaufman-Renn is the top-scoring Big Ten. He just has great hands, great feet, great touch. He’s an old-school interior player who’s always focused on the basket, and they do a great job of getting touches. Fletcher Loyer is one of the best shooters in college basketball. He’s developed some midfield skills and some ability to get the ball off the ground.”

Smith is averaging 13.4 points and 8.5 assists per game while Loyer is averaging 13.5 points. The pair shoot a combined 45.6 percent from 3-point range.

The job of defending Smith and/or Loyer for most of the game will be AU senior Denver Jones, who has become AU’s starting point guard and best defensive stopper.

“He has to be an important part of your game plan in terms of how you protect him,” Pearl of Smith said. “If this team has a chance to continue to play at a high level, our guards need to continue to guard the way we did.

“Now it’s obviously going to be another challenge against Purdue. But that might be one thing we might do better this year: guarding overall, and our guards definitely did a really good job. And Denver is the trailblazer.”

Kaufman-Renn offers its own problems inside the paint. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound player averages 18.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. He leads Purdue with 73 free throw attempts, which is significantly more than team leader Chad Baker-Mazara of AU with 46.

Avoiding foul trouble will be crucial for the Tigers’ big men, especially with Johni Broome unable to play due to his shoulder injury.

“I’m sure Purdue, they’re not going to change the way they play. They go to him,” Pearl said. “You will go to him. But they know that without Johni we would really lack depth up front and foul trouble could be a factor. We have to defend without fouls.”

Purdue is 8-3 this season with wins over No. 2 Alabama, No. 23 Ole Miss and Maryland and losses to No. 15 Marquette, Penn State and No. 17 Texas A&M.

“They have a great defense,” AU forward Chaney Johnson said. “In scout, he’s one of the better guards we’ll play all year. They are surrounded by gunmen. They also have a great big one. It’s just a good team and they play really hard. That’s what stands out.”

Kickoff at Legacy Arena is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.