Kentucky in Final Four With Its Elite Eight

Maybe they aren’t the same blue and white blur of terror of a season ago, and maybe things don’t come to them quite so easy these days.

But they’re still the Kentucky Wildcats and that’s all you need to know.

Lacking depth but star-powered and determined, defending national champion Kentucky raced to its 12th Final Four appearance with a 72-59 victory over Utah Saturday in the NCAA West Regional final before 18,543 at the San Jose Arena.

Brace yourself Indianapolis. Here come the Wildcats.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had as much pride in a basketball team as I have in this one right now,” said Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino, whose injury-riddled team has maintained its devastating full-court, non-stop defensive pressure the last two games with eight players. “This team has overcome a lot of adversity to get where it is now. Now all the fun begins.”

Not that Kentuckians haven’t enjoyed this leg of the trip.

Top-seeded Kentucky (34-4) ran its tournament winning streak to 10 games and entertained its fans in the process. Midwest Regional champion Minnesota is up next.

Against Utah (29-4), Kentucky relied on its defense to produce 17 turnovers and numerous fast-break opportunities.

Then, there was the elusive Ron Mercer.

Kentucky’s All-American forward was everywhere Utah hoped he wouldn’t be--in the clear for shots. Mercer scored a game-high 21 points and made successive jumpers to end the Utes’ only serious second-half challenge.

Mercer played 38 of 40 minutes because Kentucky is without injured swingmen Derek Anderson and Allen Edwards.

“At certain points I got a little tired,” said Mercer, a sophomore who has already declared himself available for the NBA draft. “But with the circumstances we had, we just had to go out there and play.”

His All-American counterpart didn’t have as much fun. Kentucky put the clamps on Utah forward Keith Van Horn, who had 15 points and a week’s worth of frustration.

“I was never able to get into the flow of the offense,” said Van Horn, an NBA-bound senior. “I don’t think we’ve played a team all year that pressures and switches as well as they do. They caused us a lot of problems.”

As they’ve done a few times before, the Wildcats made the most of their defensive quickness to take a comfortable lead. A jumper by guard Wayne Turner put the Wildcats ahead, 40-29, with 10:06 to play.

Kentucky--with three future NBA first-round draft selections--defeated Utah, 101-70, in the Midwest Regional semifinals last season, but these weren’t the same Utes, which they proved with a 14-3 run.

Point guard Andre Miller scored seven of his 11 points during the run, and a three-point shot by forward Drew Hansen tied the score, 43-43, with 9:39 left. All of sudden, Utah started to believe again.

Mercer changed all of that.

Pitino called consecutive plays for Mercer, who made two jumpers over Utah guard Ben Caton. That triggered a 9-2 run that put Kentucky ahead, 52-45, with 7:20 to go and made Utah accept its fate.