Kentucky and Wichita State “… is like a heavyweight title fight,” a television analyst marveled.

Stylish too. Spiced by UK’s 54 percent shooting, exquisite decision-making and, for Big Blue Nation, the answer to a question being asked back home last Sunday.

A Wildcats’ fan, who knew what analyst Seth Greenburg meant when he said three weeks ago, Kentucky, “… is painful to watch.”

Last Sunday the same fan turned to a friend and said, “Who ARE those guys?”

Kentucky’s game with Wichita State was good as basketball gets. Skilled, suspense, high stakes, quality and staying-power with a banked-in-3-pointer or two. A show to rival the Duke-Kentucky in Philadelphia in 1992 with different outcome.

Wichita State, unbeaten, No. 1 seed and favored by three, was stunningly a team. Well coached, fundamentally sound, the right pass, right angles, cut and move, move, move!

The Wildcats were stunning too.

“Who ARE those guys?”

In a broader sense, I think we witnessed that point in life when a parent sees The Miracle: One morning your teenager got out of bed, came to breakfast on time and dressed for the day and said cheerily, “good morning! Can I get anyone an orange juice?”

In that instant he/she, got it?

Got what? This: This isn’t about me. This isn’t about a pro draft spot either (in this case). And this: All the parental screams, rant and rave that created rolling eyes and blank-stares didn’t help, but only delayed The Miracle.

Kid wakes up one morning and gets it.

So, on a gorgeous Sunday in March, the question Who are those guys? got an answer.

NEXT, THESE THINGS

Broken rackets discarded, here comes a Sweet 16 with quality to reset schedules for Thursday-through-Sunday and send teevee ratings to the moon.

Delicious.

Mean time, let us reflect and/or look forward to these things …

1. No. 4 seed Louisville versus No. 8 seed Kentucky. “Seeds don’t matter,” CBS analyst Clark Kellogg said rightly, “match-ups do.”

2. One oddsmaker makes Louisville 6-1 to win the tournament; Kentucky 10-1. Let the love begin.

3. A Las Vegas odds-maker picks Kentucky to win by four. Let the love begin.

4. Bleacher Report experts pick Kentucky to beat Louisville 74-71.

5. Questions before this Friday night match:

√ Can manic Rick Pitino control, but keep effective unpredictable Russ Smith?

√ Can Kentucky duplicate its Wichita State team performance?

6. Favorites to win the NCAA Tournament: Florida 3-1, Michigan State 4-1.

7. Regional semi-final games: Rick Pitino teams are 16-0. These Cardinals have been here before and won 14 of their last 15, eight in a row in the NCAA tournament.

8. Midwest Region at Indianapolis, UK blue and UofL red will come to town in droves for Friday’s nightcap, but the under card: Tennessee and Michigan, is promising too.

9. Kentucky and Louisville in Indy brings to mind UofL-UK Dream Game in Knoxville, (can it be?) 31 years ago. 1983.

10. Enjoy Billy Donovan’s Top seed Gators another week. Florida has longest win streak left in NCAAs, 28.

11. Kansas is out, North Carolina too. Kentucky can add to its most all-time wins list lead.

12. Duke haters can leave it for next year while Mike Krzyzewski takes a rest before coaching Team USA to another gold at the Olympics.

13. College basketball’s three premier coaches are still at work: Billy Donovan, Rick Pitino and Tom Izzo.

14. More Charles “what’s in your wallet?” Barkley commercials, and straight talk.

15. Sweet 16 bracket. You’ve done the re-set, right?

16. SEC with all three entrants still playing.

17. Tennessee? Who knew a play-in would be a way to the Sweet 16?

18. Coaches carousel is spinning very well. Hear the music? Job jumper coaches do.

19. Roy Williams. Time out at the end disallowed, no whine at the Tar Heels odd end against Iowa State. Williams congratulated his opponent and walked away and said later “we made a mistake.”

20. Wichita State. Against any opponent any other day, Shockers would have done to an opponent what Baylor did to Creighton.

21. Naismith Player of the Year. Finalists are Doug McDermott (Creighton), Jabari Parker (Duke), Russ Smith (Louisville) and Nick Johnson (Arizona).

22. Recruiting horizon: Scott County guard Trent Gilbert is special and ought be kept at home. A shootist with heart of a lion and savvy for the game to more than offset not having McDonald’s all-star in front of his name. Gilbert should also be on a Derby Classic roster.

23. Covington Catholic is Kentucky’s 97th boys’ state champion 2014, beating Scott County in overtime Sunday. The Colonels were the fourth choice to win the state title, according to the ever archaic Litratings.

24. Future: As we move focus to next season: Western Kentucky University fans can boast their Hilltoppers corralled Mr. Football Nacarius Fant, Bowling Green and Miss Basketball, Ivy Brown from LaRue County.

WORTH REPEATING DEPT.

“We’re gonna shock the world,” Willie Cauley-Stein declared before the Kansas State game. “A lot of people think that we’re not going to make it past the first round. So, yeah, winning the first game would shock the world.”

Comment: Right idea, wrong game.

PARTING SHOT

We have been given a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have any of us used one to say thank you?” — William Arthur Ward

And so it goes.