NEW ORLEANS -- 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.

But don't look so confused, coach. You were the one that said this day was coming.

On multiple occasions this season, especially early, you said this team was building to this moment. In fact, you said the Southeastern Conference Tournament was "not important" for this very reason. When the hard work, the system, coach and players all finally came together at the perfect time, you prophesized this team would be "unleashed."

"I knew we could turn it up," said freshman guard John Wall, who finished the second round with a routine 14 points and seven assists. "This might be our last opportunity to look good. We've got a chance to do something special. Coming into the tournament, me and Patrick (Patterson) all talked to the team and Coach Cal said this is your last chance. You've got six games to do it all. Take one game at a time."

Through the first two games of the "real" tournament, Kentucky has looked special.

"I have been in the ACC 10 years," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. "That's as good a basketball team as we played against in the 10 years I've been here."

No. 1 overall seed Kansas fell to Northern Iowa in stunning fashion about a half an hour before UK's tipoff. Fans in New Orleans Arena roared when the public announcer reported the score and Kentucky's cheerleaders crashed the media room during the final minutes, clapping with every Northern Iowa point.

But the UK players had no clue of the upset.

"They wouldn't tell us," Wall said. "We watched the game when we were at the hotel but once we got here they turned the TV off and wouldn't let us watch nothing."

Yet they played like a team that knew an opportunity lay before them. Wake Forest was a physical, sometimes nasty team, but it had no punch against a better Kentucky team.

When Darius Miller takes it to the hoop and scores a career-high 20 points (16 of which came in the first half) and grabs nine rebounds, it makes the rest of the Kansas-less tournament field wince. The remaining tournament teams know that if Miller is driving to the basket and hitting shots, they can't just focus on Wall, Patterson , Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins.

Just about everybody from one end of the bench to the other is capable of stepping up on any given night.

"We tell (Miller) that if he'd be that aggressive and just go out there and play, he can change the game for us," Wall said of Miller. "They didn't have nobody that could guard him."

The performance Saturday coupled with the Kansas loss should make Kentucky the tournament favorite.

"I don't think that adds any pressure," Miller said. "As long as we come out and play the best we can, that's all we can control."

Calipari wasn't so ready to roll out the red carpet to Indianapolis.

"I don't know if we're the overwhelming favorite," Calipari said. "Everybody was picking us to lose today being a tough game. 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. They've never played in any other games. The guys that we're playing have never played in it. So all we're going to worry about is us."

But you are the overwhelming favorite now, coach, for the very same reason you told us at the beginning of the year. You looked us in the eyes and said there would be a point in the season where this team would be unleashed.

And you were right. The leash is off and the beast is loose. Every team standing in its way should be very, very concerned.

The Cats found that swagger around the 11-minute mark against Wake Forest. Leading 21-19, UK went on a 23-6 run to close the half. Kentucky continued the torrid pace in the second half with 11 straight field goals.

UK's first miss in the second stanza came eight minutes after halftime. Overall, UK shot 60.3 percent and outrebounded a team that beat Texas on the boards by 25.

"We're still better than what we played tonight, I think" Patterson said. "We can still rebound a little bit better and communicate a little bit better. As for our performance tonight ...  I just think it's a total team effort and one of our best games of the season."

Sophomore DeAndre Liggins has rediscovered the tenacity that brought midseason praise from his coach, Bledsoe has regained his shooting touch from behind the arc and Cousins has completed the transformation in his maturity.

Midway through the second half, notorious troublemaker Chas McFarland intentionally fouled Cousins as we he went up for a shot, clocking the first-year freshman on the head and sending him to the deck.

Two months ago, Cousins would have picked himself up, got in the face of McFarland and likely retaliated. But that was so two months ago.

This new-look Cousins got off the hardwood, walked away from McFarland and raised his hands in the air to the approval of the pro-UK crowd. The smile stayed on his face all the way through postgame interviews.

"He laid a couple of licks on me but I've been getting this all season," Cousins said. "Trash talking, he was just saying the same thing. He came out with a momma joke or something."

The Cats are hitting their stride when they wanted to and said they would. It can become so easy to praise a 34-2 team, and maybe we shouldn't book our flights to Indianapolis quite yet.

But it's hard to find a team that has had a more impressive opening weekend to the tournament.

"You're trying to win," Calipari said. "You're trying to land the plane. You're trying to get it down on the ground. Whatever's happening, all the turbulence and the other kind of stuff. We're just trying to get the plane on the ground right now."

Figuratively speaking, coach, I think you've got one thing wrong. This team is off the leash and off the ground.

The new tournament favorite is soaring into the Sweet 16.

NCAA.com

NEW ORLEANS - Just short of getting in a fight -- one thing DeMarcus Cousins vowed not to do Saturday -- Kentucky might want to bring everything it has when it squares off with Wake Forest on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Wake Forest is long, athletic and physically imposing. Four players stand 6-foot-11 or taller, and that list doesn't include potential NBA lottery pick Al-Farouq Aminu (6-9), the Demon Deacons' best talent and only Atlantic Coast Conference player to average a double-double (15.8 points, 10.8 rebounds) this season.

That list does include 7-footer Chas McFarland, a player quickly becoming notorious for getting under players' skin.

"I knew that question was coming," Cousins said when asked how he would handle the emotional McFarland. "I'm just going to go play basketball. I'm telling you now, I'm not trying to get in a fistfight (and) I'm not playing dirty or nothing. I'm just going to play ball."

But he may want to bring the wood, energy and muscle it will take to match up with the Demon Deacons in what expects to be an old fashioned slugfest at approximately 8:20 p.m. ET in New Orleans Arena.

Wake Forest took Texas to the woodshed Thursday night on the boards, outrebounding the Longhorns 59-34. That beat-down included 20 offensive rebounds, 42 points in the paint and 25-second chance points. Aminu and 6-foot guard Ishmael Smith, known more for his speed than size, combined for 27 rebounds.

"You're playing a team from the ACC who did damage," said head coach John Calipari. "They're physical. They outrebounded Texas by 25. Think about that -- 25 rebounds. They got 20 offensive boards against Texas, who prides itself in that toughness and that rebounding. That's the one thing you're not going to beat them with, and they did. ...

"I just watched tape and you get sick to your stomach. I hate watching too much tape because you start like, 'Oh, my gosh, how are we going to even stay on the court with these guys.' "

In the 19 games Wake Forest won prior to Thursday night's rebounding shellacking, the Demon Decaons averaged 7.7 more rebounds than their opponent. In the 10 games they lost, they were outrebounded by 1.4 a game.

That means the key for Kentucky will be crashing the glass.

"(We will) need a total team effort," junior forward Patrick Patterson said. "They're pretty big, so it's just all about who wants it more when it comes off the rim and who is the tougher team out there."

UK, the nation's tallest team, was one of the top rebounding teams in the country this season but struggled mightily down the stretch. Entering Saturday's primetime affair, the Cats have been outrebounded four of their last six games.

Against a much smaller East Tennessee State team Thursday night, UK just barely outrebounded the Buccaneers by four.

"We were just ball watching," senior guard/forward Ramon Harris said. "The shot went up and we weren't going to get contact with anybody. We were seeing if the ball was going in and out and not getting the opportunity or the chance to get the rebound."

Patterson was asked what makes a good rebounding team.

"Moving your feet and not accepting being boxed out, just wanting the ball more," Patterson said.

There's a strong misconception that forwards and centers are responsible for most of the rebounding, but it's been the guards Calipari has pointed to when the rebounding numbers aren't where they should be.

"If you look over the course of the season, when our guards rebound, we get out and get a fast-break and either get a three or a quick post-up or even a layup," Harris said. "If we get all five guys rebounding, we're a hard team to beat."

Wake Forest runs a similar attack to that of South Carolina, who shocked Kentucky in early February with a rebounding bombardment.

Speedy guard Devan Downey ran circles around the Cats and drew attention away from the basket. That opened up the rim for key second-chance opportunities.

The end result turned ugly.

"They've got their little point guard, Smith, who is as good -- he's Devan Downey that beat us at South Carolina," Calipari said.

Cousins, who welcomed the opportunity to quite possibly play one-on-one for the first time this season, said their misfortunes at South Carolina were a long time ago.

"In that game there was a lot of bad placement and was a situation where we were still learning the pick-and-roll defense," Cousins said. "But we've been doing a lot of drills since that game and it's helped with our rebounding. We didn't have anyone crashing the boards and you'll see a better effort. You saw how we were the second time against South Carolina."

NEW ORLEANS -- DeMarcus Cousins has become the media darling of this year's basketball team.

Whether he intends to or not, he often gives the most candid, hysterical, and quite frankly, most insightful interviews.

During Friday's pre-Wake Forest media availability, he was in rare form.

First he tried to sneak into the locker room without any reporters noticing. How does a 6-foot-11, 270-pound forward scurry past 30 reporters in a 30-by-20-foot dressing area, you might ask. Crawling past the legs of the journalists toward the bathroom was Cousins' method of choice.

Obviously, it did not work.

When Cousins finally sat down, he shined some new light on this whole "land the plane" mantra that head coach John Calipari has preached since the opening day of the tournament.

In case you haven't read or heard it, here is what Calipari said: "When you have a team this young, you're in the survive-and-advance mode. What we're talking about and the message I've given the team is land the plane. Land the turbulence. There's storm, there's lightning, people drinking their 'Hater-ade' and coming at you. There are going to be things written and said. It's all coming at you. Land the plane. Survive and advance."

Cousins took the speech quite literally.

"We had a rough landing on one of (the flights)," Cousins said. "You know how you come down, it's supposed to land on the back wheels then the front wheel. It's supposed to be smooth. It was like (smacks his hands). So I thought he was like, 'land the plane.'

" 'Yeah, coach, (the pilot) almost killed us.' "

Cousins believes the rough landing occurred on a flight back from the Mississippi State game.

"I was sleeping and just woke up and thought I was dying," Cousins said.

Whether or not Calipari has a book of aphorisms, we'll never know, but he's become a machine for motivational adages. "Land the plane" was good, Cousins said, but he still has a personal favorite.

"The first one that I'll never forget was 'poop ice cream' " Cousins said. "I was like, 'What are you talking about?' "

Asked if he thought he did "poop ice cream," Cousins mischievously looked up and popped a grin too priceless for words.

The message, though, has always been clear for Cousins and the team. The constant theme is to keep improving and don't settle for  just good.

"I understand Cal in a strange way," Cousins said. "It takes me a minute to get it as well."

As for the whole "land the plane" mantra, Cousins eventually got it. He wrote it on the whiteboard for one of the team's pregame objectives, although Calipari wasn't sure who did it.

"That was me," Cousins said, laughing again. "Don't tell him though."

Don't worry, DeMarcus, your secret is safe with us.

NEW ORLEANS -- One guy may know Daniel Orton better than himself. That guy would be Orton's 6-foot-11 adversary in practice, DeMarcus Cousins.

"Daniel has improved a lot, especially offensively," Cousins said after Kentucky's win over East Tennessee State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. "He came in as a defensive player, but his offense is starting to come around now."

Cousins would know. If there is one matchup in practice worth checking out, it's the battle of the burly freshmen.

Some of the wars they've waged in practice have become so fierce and so competitive that Cousins calls Orton the best player he's faced all year. Although Cousins has earned the most minutes on the court, Orton has earned the renowned reputation as Cousins' kryptonite in practice.

Orton has had no qualms telling the media of all the shots of Cousins he's blocked in practice, and Cousins has had no embarrassment in owning up.

"When he comes out ready to play, he's a beast," Cousins said. "He came out ready to play today. He was blocking shots, rebounding, scoring. He just helped us out tremendously."

Cousins provided a huge spark off the bench against ETSU. The 6-foot-10, 255-pound freshman logged eight points and seven rebounds in just 14 minutes. On a night when Cousins wasn't on his game (five points in 24 minutes), Orton provided all the power UK needed in the paint.

"Hopefully I can do it further on in the tournament when DeMarcus is tired and give us that offensive presence off the bench," Orton said.

During one defensive stop in the second half, Orton blocked three consecutive shots before ETSU ever got a shot to the rim. It was like watching a volleyball player spike a ball at the top of the net.

"(Defense is) just something that I have a lot of fun with and I used to do in high school," Orton said. "To be able to do it on this level is great."

In fact, Orton has frequently said that it was his defensive game that earned him such high accolades out of Bishop McGuiness Catholic High School.

"It's my No. 1 priority," Orton said. "I'm our defensive stopper, so that's one thing I focus on."

Orton said he's starting to gain confidence in his offensive game. If that's the case, the ceiling could be as tall as the potential of Cousins, head coach John Calipari said last week.

During Friday's media availability with Calipari, the first-year UK coach spoke of the recruitment and development of Orton.

"In our locker room after one of our games I was proud of how he played and how he's responded to this team," Calipari said. "I said, 'Daniel, when you were recruited here, what did they tell you?' 'They told me I would start.' 'Did they tell you you'd be the man' 'Yes, they did.' Now all of a sudden he's playing behind DeMarcus Cousins, and you know what, all he's done is helped our team win."

Calipari said Orton has played so well of late that he could have the option of leaving school for the pros after this season. As well as Orton has played of late, his stats (zero starts, 3.3 points per game and 3.5 rebounds per game) would suggest otherwise. 

"Daniel will have options at the end of the year to make a decision on what he wants to do," Calipari said. "Can you imagine? And I'm not sure that would have happened if he was on a team that was an NIT team. You hear what I'm saying? Now they're looking at him saying this kid is really, really good. And he is."

The first-year big man took a hard fall in the second half against ETSU and bruised his lower back. He did not play the rest of the game but told reporters Thursday and Friday that he should be ready to go for Saturday's game after some minor treatment.

With only three seniors on its roster, some may look at the University of Kentucky baseball team and consider it a young one. However, upon consideration of the fact that all three seniors are in their fifth year after redshirting, that may not be the case.

"I feel like I've been here 10 years," UK backstop Marcus Nidiffer said.

After redshirting his freshman season, the fifth-year senior has put together an impressive career so far for Kentucky, earning 2010 second-team preseason All-Southeastern Conference honors from SEbaseball.com. After playing through a broken thumb on his catching hand last year, he's certainly battle-tested, and has been described as the "vocal, physical, and emotional leader" and the "heart and soul" of the UK baseball team.

Nidiffer had some interesting thoughts to share on UK's upcoming SEC-opening series against Ole Miss:

"We're a little ways into (the season) by now," Nidiffer said. "Our goal is to keep getting better, and I think we're doing that. The Ole Miss pitchers are going to come right at us, going to throw strikes. We can't change our approach, though, we just have to battle every pitch. A lot of times, these SEC games are decided by just a run or two. We've got to fight every inning, every pitch to get that run."

Included in the stable of the Mississippi pitching staff is their workhorse, All-American lefty Drew Pomeranz, who will start for the Rebels on Friday night. Even though there's been plenty of hype surrounding the Cats' opener, Nidiffer knows that it's a long journey to the promised land of college baseball:

"We just have to take it one game at a time," Nidiffer said. "You see teams all the time go from 'on the bubble' and then two weeks later, they're at the bottom or even the top of the league."

Another intriguing aspect of this weekend will be the first career SEC start by Freshman Taylor Rogers, who is scheduled to go on Saturday. As the leader of the pitching staff, Nidiffer has been impressed with Rogers so far:

"He's comparable to Chris Rusin when he was a freshman; similar stuff," Nidiffer said. "He's done a great job so far. I think he's ready. Obviously, these hitters are going to be more disciplined, so he'll have to concentrate on throwing to location, and I'll tell him that."

When asked if he thought he was personally ready for SEC play, the laid-back native of Bristol, Tennessee simply chuckled and said in his signature southern drawl, "Sure am."