John Clay's Sidelines

(AP photo)

BBL for Sunday:

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader on Kentucky’s big win in the Big Easy:

Foul trouble for Wake Forest’s leading scorer and rebounder, Al-Farouq Aminu, helped get the rout started. But Kentucky was clicking with newfound precision and merciless consistency, and advancement to Syracuse this week became a certainty by halftime.

A crowd of 11,966 in the New Orleans Arena watched Kentucky advance to the Sweet 16 round for the first time since 2005. The Cats got there in style. The combined margins of victory in two games here – 59 points – represented Kentucky’s third biggest two-game spread to start an NCAA Tournament. Only the 68-point margin in 1995 and 62 in 1996 have been larger.

Mark Story of the H-L on how Kentucky is now the favorite:

Finally, genuine NCAA Tournament electricity came to the Crescent City.

Oh, not in the actual New Orleans Arena.

As word spread that No. 1 overall seed Kansas was in deep doo-doo Saturday against Northern Iowa, an unusual crowd gathered around a TV near the media room buried deep inside the bowels of the facility.

Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader on the UK women’s win over Liberty:

On Monday night, Kentucky will face fifth-seeded Michigan State, a 72-62 winner over Bowling Green in the first game on Saturday.

The Cats have struggled with teams from the Big Ten, losing their last eight games, including a loss in the second round to Michigan State in 2006.

For a while on Saturday, it looked as though the big team from the Big South was going to be just as troubling for Kentucky.

My column on A’dia Mathies’ big day in her hometown:

She was back in her hometown after all, back where A’dia Mathies starred for Iroquois High School and captured Miss Basketball honors.

So it shouldn’t have been surprising Saturday when, during warm-ups, the Kentucky freshman kept hearing someone call her name.

“I didn’t want to look,” said Mathies.

Why not?

“It shows that I was focused if I didn’t look out there,” she said.

Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal on UK’s Saturday night shooting clinic:

In advancing to the Sweet16 for the first time since 2005, UK won its two games by an average of 29.5 points.

Against Wake Forest, the Cats pulled away late in the first half and dominated the second, leading by 31 points, shooting 60.3 percent and getting double-digit scoring from four players, including a career-high 20 points from sophomore Darius Miller.

Matt May of the Cats Pause writes that UK left Deacons in their Wake:

For a night in the Big Easy Miller made everything look as simple as the city’s nickname, setting a career-high with 20 points in Kentucky’s 90-60 annihilation of Wake Forest in front of 11,966 fans at New Orleans Arena.

Miller set the tone for the Cats (34-2) by attacking the Demon Deacons’ defense in the opening minutes of the game, then his teammates joined in to put another NCAA Tournament punishment on Wake Forest, just as they did in 1993 and the 1996 national championship season.

Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News on UK’s new role:

The Wildcats didn’t find out about KU losing until after they had demolished Wake Forest, 90-60, with 20 points from Miller, 14 points and seven assists from guard Eric Bledsoe and 19 points, eight rebounds and an impressive episode of restraint from center DeMarcus Cousins.

By the time they knew, however, they were having too much fun celebrating a lopsided win and watching Bledsoe’s scorching second-half dunk being replayed on ESPN to worry about one of their fellow No. 1 seeds being vanquished.

Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News and Observer says John Wall makes the difference:

With Kansas’ surprise ouster earlier Saturday, Kentucky is now the prohibitive favorite to win the national title, and the Wildcats are going to go as far as Wall can take them. It’s the kind of challenge Wall came to Kentucky to seek. He has it now.

Against a Wake Forest team brimming with confidence Saturday, Wall carried the Wildcats into the regional semifinals with a game-changing performance. Again, his statistics were quiet – 14 points, seven assists, five turnovers. Again, his influence in the 90-60 win was indisputable.

Thayer Evans of the New York Times on UK’s easy time:

When Kentucky Coach John Calipari talks about his top-seeded team landing the airplane, it’s not as literal as the freshman sensations John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins being in a real cockpit.

But it does have some correlation because Calipari has been using the saying as a metaphor for his team’s pursuit of a national championship.

Chris Low of espn.com says UK hitting its stride at right time:

“Oh … I wonder which team is going to be favored now,” said freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins, trying his best to sport a quizzical look.

Surely, it will be the Wildcats, who’ve won their first two games be a combined 59 points while shooting better than 50 percent from the field in both games and handing out a combined 48 assists.

Right, DeMarcus?

“Probably,” he said.

Is that all right with you, DeMarcus?

“I don’t care. I liked it when they hated us,” he said. “We’re going to go play, but I love being the bad guy.”

James Pennington of the Kentucky Kernel on Bluegrass basketball shining on:

Both UK men’s and women’s teams won NCAA Tournament games, a mountain team (Shelby Valley) won the Kentucky state high school boys’ championship for the first time in 14 years, and Butler’s Shelvin Mack, a Lexington native, scored 11 points to help send the Bulldogs to the Sweet 16 (ironically over Murray State, a Kentucky team).

In the Big Easy, things couldn’t have been easier in the Cats’ win over Wake Forest. Darius Miller, of Maysville, led the Cats’ 90-60 blowout with a career-high 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting (he missed his first and last shots, bookending seven makes in a row). He also made all five of his free throws, despite the team shooting much better from the field (60.3 percent) than from the foul line (41.2 percent).

Metz Camfield of the Kernel on UK’s hot shooting:

The Cats continued their hot shooting in the second half, hitting their first 11 shots from the field, and hitting 23 of their first 25 two-point field goal attempts for the game. With 11:59 showing on the clock, the Cats were shooting over 76 percent from the field. Gaudy numbers junior forward Patrick Patterson said he hadn’t realized while the game was going on.

“I couldn’t believe that we were up by 30 or more,” Patterson said. “I was like, ‘Man, is this right, right now?’ “

Eric Lindsey of Cat Scratches says UK is the new tournament favorite:

Camera flashes dotted a sea of blue at New Orleans Arena as Eric Bledsoe flew down the lane and took flight five feet from the rim to throw down a one-hand tomahawk jam.

Kentucky head coach John Calipari had nothing. What could he say? He headed back to the bench and scratched his head.

Calipari was bewildered at the show in front of him, taken aback by Bledsoe’s dunk and UK’s 90-60 annihilation of Wake Forest. Kentucky, after its second straight rout in the postseason, is headed for the Sweet 16 in Syracuse against either Cornell or Wisconsin on Thursday.

Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger on Darius Miller’s big night:

Before Saturday’s game, Nicole Miller said she had a feeling she was going to have a big night on the town.

She probably did, too, after watching her son — Kentucky sophomore Darius Miller — play perhaps his best game of the  season to help UK down Wake Forest 90-60 in the NCAA East Region second round.

Chris Fisher of Kentucky Ink on the Cats’ cruising over Wake:

It would only get worse for the Deacs. In one of its most complete performances of the season, the Cats connected on its first 11 field goals of the second half as the lead ballooned to as many as 31. Fittingly, when Patrick Patterson finally missed a jumper at the 12:00 mark, Wake’s L.D. Williams fumbled the rebound out of bounds. It was that kind of night for Wake and for the game, Kentucky made 38 of 63 field goals overall for 60.3 percent. The Wildcats connected on a ridiculous 31 of 42 shots inside the arc for 73. 8 percent.
“I’ve been in the ACC 10 years and that’s as good a basketball team as we’ve played,” Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. “It kind of snowballed on us a bit and got away from us. They made a run and we just couldn’t stop the bleeding.”

Blogs:

• Walter’s Wildcat World has Mark Krebs’ three.
• A Sea of Blue gives its postmortem on the UK win over Wake Forest.
• Kentucky Sports Radio on Kentucky’s dominating run in New Orleans.
• Bluegrass State Basketball gives its game recap on the UK win.
• Inner Circle says UK exorcised its Demon Deacons.
• Wildcat Blue Blog on Kentucky blistering Wake Forest.
• Kentucky Sports Network gives thumbs-up and yes a thumbs-down on UK-Wake.
• Big Blue Nation on Wake’s post-game comments.