Mike DeCourcy

NEW ORLEANS - There was Kansas on the television, dying the slowest death since Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator," and Kentucky coach John Calipari immediately recognized that was the last thing his Wildcats needed to see before their own second-round NCAA Tournament game.

Off went the TV.

On went Kentucky into the Sweet 16.

"It was on for like a minute," UK wing Darius Miller said. "We didn't really get to see any of it. At that point, they were losing, but we didn't get to see them play.

"He came in and shut it off. But I think that was a good thing. From that point on, we were focused and keyed in on what we needed to do."

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.

The dynamic for Kentucky in this tournament changed early Saturday evening, however, when the consensus favorite got itself bounced from the tournament and those who are paid to have opinions about such things looked around for someone else to anoint.

Someone tried out this declaration on Calipari — "You're obviously the overwhelming favorite now for most people," a reporter said — during the postgame news conference.

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"I don't know if we're the overwhelming favorite. Everybody was picking us to lose, today being a tough game," Calipari said. "They were also saying we'd be the first No. 1 out. So how do they change those talking heads overnight? With one game? Come on. We're still a bunch of freshmen and sophomores. Our second NCAA Tournament game — the guys that we're playing have never played in it."

What Calipari can't deny, and he wouldn't bother to try, is that Kentucky now stands as clearly the most talented team in the tournament. With Cousins, Bledsoe, point guard John Wall and forward Patrick Patterson all likely first-round picks in whatever draft they choose to enter, that probably was true before KU was evicted.

The Jayhawks, though, had talent and experience. Every step in this tournament will be new for the Wildcats. Each of the five UK starters now has participated in two NCAA games each.

"I told John after the game his kids played really, really well," Wake coach Dino Gaudio said. "I've been in the ACC 10 years; that's as good a basketball team as we played against in the 10 years I've been here."

That statement covers Maryland's 2002 NCAA champions. It covers North Carolina's 2005 NCAA champions. And yes, it covers Carolina's 2009 NCAA champions. That's a lot of champions.

To join them, Kentucky entered this tournament needing to take each game seriously and to play with a higher degree of intensity than it had demonstrated in many regular-season games. That has not been an issue.

The Wildcats took East Tennessee State as seriously as they might have the Tennessee Volunteers. And they were wide awake against Wake Forest from the opening tip.

It probably didn't help the Deacons that senior center Chas McFarland declined to shake hands with Cousins before the game began. Later, with the game well out of hand, McFarland clubbed Cousins in the face — a play officials ruled an intentional foul. But after the force drove him to the ground, Cousins resisted any temptation to retaliate. He stood up, jogged away, and then began motioning for the crowd to cheer.

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"I knew he was going to come out with his antics, and it didn't work," Cousins said.

"I wasn't going to do anything about it. I was just letting Coach know that he did give me a cheap shot in the face. I was good. I was good the whole time."

In a happy locker room, Cousins said he would prefer the Wildcats continue to be doubted rather than embraced as a favorite because "it feels good" to prove the doubters wrong.

Cousins had a simple answer when asked if he believed Kansas' departure would increase the pressure on Kentucky to win it.

"Nope."

He did not elaborate.

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