Kentucky Wildcats walk the walk and destroy the talk

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South Bound & Down

In the end, it was just words from a college freshman caught up in the moment of his first taste of NCAA Tournament Action, but the Kentucky Wildcats took it much more seriously than that.  By now, the words of West Virginia’s Daxter Miles Jr that Kentucky would be 36-1 have served as a notice of how NOT to head into a game with the Kentucky Wildcats as the top ranked Cats used the youthful boast as fuel for one of the most dominating performances the Sweet 16 Tournament has ever seen.

After an early 2-2 ties and a missed 3-pointer by Miles, Kentucky went on a 16-0 run which gave them a lead that they would never relinquich and effectively acted as a TKO the Mountaineers would never recover from.  Kentucky stretched that lead to 44-18 at the half and kept up the pressure in the second half en route to a 78-39 smashing.  And when the game was over, it was finally time for these Cats to do their talking.

"“We’ve been talking about it all day,” Tyler Ulis said. “Coming out and just demolishing them ‘cause they were talking so much trash saying we were gonna be 36-1 and stuff like that. We felt like that was nonsense, so we just came out and killed ‘em.” In a season full of devastating performances, the Cats delivered one of their best yet on the biggest stage yet. With a 78-39 destruction of the Mountaineers, UK moved to 37-0 and into the Elite Eight, and tied an NCAA Tournament record for the largest margin of victory in a Sweet 16 game. “I was really pleased with the energy of our team,” John Calipari said. “I was pleased with how zoned in they were, with how we were going to attack the press, how we were going to finish and we were going to just, hey, if we could score a hundred, score a hundred, just play.” For a while, the Cats seemed like they might threaten the century mark. Within the first eight minutes, UK built an 18-2 lead. Aaron Harrison, scoring 10 points, chased away any worries about outside shooting woes lingering from last week’s win over Cincinnati or Kentucky’s 2010 Elite Eight loss to West Virginia by burying a pair of 3-pointers."

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Perhaps it was not just the words of Miles that fueled the Kentucky Wildcats but the words of the national media as well, many of whom made the Mountaineers a trendy pick to defeat the undefeated Wildcats.  It seems that every game Kentucky faces now is a “bad matchup” for Kentucky and for some reason, some pundits want to invalidate the Wildcats perfect season.  Let last night’s game be a lesson for everyone that their words against Kentucky can surely hurt them.  

"The Wildcats bristled at Miles’ comments when they were told of them Wednesday, and they came out Thursday night itching to settle the score. Harrison scored 10 as Kentucky opened the game with an 18-2 run, effectively ending the game before the under-12 timeout. “(The comments) kind of got us ready,” Cauley-Stein said. “We came out firing on all cylinders, and that just makes it look worse.” West Virginia prides itself on its physicality, but Kentucky bumped and bruised from the start. It never gave West Virginia the chance to run its stifling press, not allowing the Mountaineers to get off shots. Or, on the rare occasions West Virginia did, capitalizing on its size advantage and vacuuming up the rebounds. And, just for fun, Kentucky took a page out of West Virginia’s playbook and ran a press of its own. “The pace, the tempo, they controlled the tempo and the pace the whole game,” Devin Williams said. “The only way we going to be successful is us controlling the tempo and the pace.” That’s the thing: Miles may have thought he was doing the Mountaineers a favor, showing they weren’t afraid of big, bad Kentucky. But poke the bear too much, and it’s going to bite back. Hard. “Careful what you wish for,” Cauley-Stein said."

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Perhaps lost in the Kentucky Wildcats dominating performance may be the fact that UK got just 1 point from perhaps their best player, Karl-Anthony Towns.  ONE POINT.  I guess that he will have something to prove for Saturday night versus Notre Dame.

"3. Karl-Anthony Towns can do better. I asked Calipari how close his team came Thursday to what the coach said he wanted, i.e., the best versions of themselves. He quickly pointed out that Karl-Anthony Towns can play much, much better. The freshman was scored just one point and grabbed just two rebounds in just 13 minutes — as a starter. Towns missed all three of his shots and did not have an assist or a blocked shot. The one point was a season low for Towns. This is the same Towns who scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the NCAA Tournament opener against Hampton. “The only guy, I said, was Karl was not as engaged with the team as he normally is,” Calipari said afterward, “and I don’t know why he wasn’t but we’ll need him for the next one."