CLEVELAND — There were less than 12 minutes remaining in the Midwest Region semifinal and West Virginia had only made five shots. Kentucky had blocked six.
This is what happens when the Wildcats play hard.
Awoken by the words of West Virginia’s Daxter Miles Jr., who declared the Mountaineers would end Kentucky’s perfect season by exploiting its lackluster energy, the top-seeded Wildcats shredded its opponent within the first few minutes of Thursday night’s game at Quicken Loans Arena, then used the rest of the 78-39 annihilation to warn the remaining NCAA Tournament teams what lies ahead.
“We were ready to play [the night before],” Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein said. “Like Coach [John Calipari] says, you gotta step in the ring at some time, gotta throw the ball up. Teams want to talk trash and get you out of your element, but it brings us into the element. They’re better off not saying anything and trying to catch us off guard rather than talk trash. Guys knew what they were gonna do before they came into the game. We were focused.”
And after thoroughly humiliating his opponent, Cauley-Stein added, “I don’t think we played hard enough.”
Kentucky (37-0) extended college basketball’s best-ever start to a season with ease, swatting away the Mountaineers’ full-court press and stomping their unlikely dreams with an 18-2 start to the game, quickly sealing a Saturday night showdown with No. 3 Notre Dame. It is the Wildcats’ fifth appearance in the Elite Eight in the past six years.
Putting on an all-time defensive performance, Kentucky limited West Virginia to 24 percent shooting from the field and the fewest points in a Sweet 16 game in 40 years, moving three wins from completing the first undefeated season since 1976. The Mountaineers finished with 13 made field goals and 13 turnovers.
“That was what I was pretty much afraid what could happen,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “They were what I thought they were. They were the best defensive team in the country. That’s the best defensive team I think I’ve ever coached against.”
The Mountaineers (25-10) missed their first 12 3-pointers and trailed 44-18 at the half after allowing the Wildcats to shoot 61 percent from the field, with their failed press surrendering a parade of layups and dunks, amusing the crowd and the Kentucky players on the bench.
Even though the Wildcats’ top offensive talent — Karl-Anthony Towns — had just one point, Kentucky had five scorers in double-figures, led by Trey Lyles’ 14.
“It’s time to start taking it up another notch,” Cauley-Stein said. “We had a different intensity. If everyone’s playing at the top of their game, it’s tough for us to get beat.”
With West Virginia limp and still in their teeth, the Wildcats clamped down even harder at the start of the second half, holding the Mountaineers without a point for more than eight minutes and eventually extending the lead to 41.
The destruction was done and the clock couldn’t move slower, leaving Huggins uncharacteristically quiet, standing with his hands in his pockets or sitting with his arms crossing his chest. There were no more reasons to yell. No syllables could erase the carnage.
Miles, who finished with no points, already had uttered the most impactful words. In the aftermath of the destruction, the freshman mustered the same phrase over and over: “They played great.”
But Huggins wasn’t bothered by his bravado.
“I’m kind of happy he wasn’t hiding under a chair somewhere, you know?” Huggins said. “There’s nothing wrong with having some confidence and wanting to go out and compete. They just were way better than we were.”
Kentucky usually is, giving opponents less reason to slap them in the face before the bell rings.
Notre Dame’s gag order begins now.