CLEVELAND — A grim, howling “2” sat up there beside “West Virginia” on the scoreboard for seven telltale minutes early on. The Mountaineers’ shooting percentage in the final minute of the decisive first half went from 16 up to 20 and down to 19.2. West Virginia’s number of first-half fouls (14) trounced its number of field goals (5) but came up shy of its number of points (18).  Once again, the act of watching Kentucky play basketball became an act of following eye-widening numbers in addition to witnessing the usual constellation of some of the nation’s finest athletes. This 78-39 annihilation in the second Midwest Region semifinal at Quicken Loans Arena grew reminiscent of what Kentucky did in November to perfectly decent teams such as Kansas (19.6-percent shooting) and UCLA (41-7 halftime lead).  The numbers that mattered followed suit as Kentucky took leads of 18-2, 30-9, 42-15, 54-21, 70-32, along this scorched path to 37-0 and three tests shy of the best season in college basketball history. Next comes No. 3 seed Notre Dame, which will try to make more of a regional final than No. 5 seed West Virginia made of an alleged Sweet 16 game a witness might have spent idly wondering whether West Virginia could reach 40. (Note: It didn’t.)  West Virginia players had boasted of their peerless press, but their peerless press barely materialized. For one thing, it’s trickier to press when you can’t make a shot. For another, the snarling press never worked anyway. Extremely elite athletes can beat a press. The first points off a press in the game came from Kentucky.  It got so bad that West Virginia lost a point during a timeout. It went into the timeout with a 30-10 deficit at 7:36 of the first half, and it came out of the timeout with a 30-9 deficit. A video review of a shot from four minutes earlier had turned Juwan Staten’s apparent three-point shot into a two-point shot.  Kentucky’s defense, first in the nation in field-goal percentage, excels even during timeouts.  West Virginia (25-10) did budge upward to 24.1 percent, while Kentucky both spared the pulse rates of its hopeful fans and provided those fans a few gems. For typical variety, they had freshman Tyler Ulis throw an alley-lop to sophomore Marcus Lee, and sophomore Andrew Harrison throw one to junior Willie Cauley-Stein. By the waning seconds of the first half, their ardent fans gave a standing ovation.  By the end, the beating had been so thorough that their “Go Big Blue” chant kind of trailed off. They really didn’t need it.  Chuck Culpepper covers national college sports for the Washington Post.  Continue reading 10 minutes left
West Virginia entered its Sweet 16 showdown with Kentucky talking big, but it was the Wildcats who flashed the swagger in a 78-39 rout.