By Kyle Arensdorf

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Never poke the sleeping bear — advice West Virginia didn’t seem to be privy to prior to its Sweet 16 matchup against UK. In fact, it seemed as though they poked it with a cattle prod.

When Mountaineer freshman Daxter Miles Jr. questioned UK’s intensity on the court and guaranteed a win on Wednesday, all the Cats did publicly was laugh it off. But it was apparent in Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday that behind closed doors they were very serious about what they had in store for the Mountaineers — an annihilation to the tune of 78-39.

UK held West Virginia to two points for more than nine minutes. It took the Mountaineers 18 minutes to score more points than Aaron Harrison had by himself (12) in the first half. And even if the Cats had failed to score in the second half, they still would have won by five points. They did though, and following the lead of sophomore guard Andrew Harrison, proceeded to dismantle West Virginia in the second half.

The Cats dominated the game in every fashion. They were the bullies on the playground. And they reminded anyone who had forgotten that no team can hang with them when they are fully attentive.

What Thursday’s Sweet 16 game showed as well was that UK has simply been bored with its competition of late. It toys with an opponent for a half or so, and then gets serious and puts the game away.

Why wouldn’t Miles Jr. find some extra confidence in the way UK had been performing?

“I’m kind of happy he had some confidence; he wasn’t hiding under a chair somewhere,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said after the game.

OK, but you’d better be able to back it up. Otherwise, a 39-point defeat is your fate.

“They should’ve just kept their mouth shut and it probably wouldn’t have been like that,” freshman guard Tyler Ulis said.

What makes the UK beat-down even more comical is that its best player, freshman forward Karl-Anthony Towns, scored one point on the night.

West Virginia poked the sleeping Cats, and now their three remaining opponents are going to have to answer for it.

“We did the best we could do,” West Virginia forward Devin Williams said. “You can’t stop something that’s destined.”

Maybe if the Mountaineers had echoed that sentiment instead of the one they did, they could have made a game out of it.