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.