NCAA tournament: Half of Elite Eight set
Kentucky stayed unbeaten despite a prediction to the contrary by a member of the team the Wildcats wound up clobbering.
Notre Dame continued its unlikely and magical run.
And Wisconsin and Arizona used late rallies to come out on top.
All in a night's action in the NCAA tournament, as the four winners stamped their tickets to the Elite Eight.
The rest of that field will emerge from Friday action, with contests between Gonzaga and UCLA, Louisville and Northern Iowa, Oklahoma and Michigan State, and Duke and Utah.
Complete NCAA Tournament coverage at CBSSports.com
2015 NCAA Tournament: TV schedule, game times
As for Thursday:
Kentucky - West Virginia
CLEVELAND -- Perfect and pulverizing. Kentucky made West Virginia's press look pathetic.
Trey Lyles scored 14 points, Andrew Harrison added 13 and the unbeaten Wildcats, chasing history and a ninth national title, rolled to a 78-39 victory over the Mountaineers on Thursday night in the Midwest Regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
The tourney's top seed and an overwhelming favorite to cut down the nets next month in Indianapolis, Kentucky (37-0) advanced to Saturday's regional final to play third-seeded Notre Dame, an 81-70 winner over Wichita State in the other semifinal.
The Fighting Irish may need to call Rudy, consult with Digger Phelps and wake up the echoes from some of those stunning upsets in football and hoops they have pulled off in the past.
In rolling to the easy victory, Kentucky made a mockery of the much-talked-about prediction by West Virginia's Daxter Miles Jr. that his team would be the one to end Kentucky's unbeaten string.
CBSSports.com's Matt Norlander writes that Miles Jr. "will go down at worst as a college basketball posterchild perma-meme or, if he's lucky, merely a point of reference going forward. Worst prediction ever? Yeah. When the final score is 78-39, it's the worst prediction ever. Don't prophesize victory against leviathan programs stockpiled with future pros."
Notre Dame - Wichita State
CLEVELAND -- Notre Dame's march through March is picking up speed.
Demetrius Jackson scored 20 points and the third-seeded Irish dominated Wichita State 81-70 in the Midwest regional semifinals on Thursday night to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time in 36 years.
The Irish (32-5) shot 75 percent (18 of 24) in the second half, easily pulling away from the seventh-seeded Shockers (30-5) after Wichita State took its first and only lead on a layup by Darius Carter early in the second half. Pat Connaughton added 16 points and 10 rebounds for Notre Dame and Jerian Grant had nine points and 11 assists.
Notre Dame will play unbeaten Kentucky Saturday night with a Final Four spot on the line.
Fred VanVleet led Wichita State with 25 points but the Shockers simply couldn't keep up with the sharp-shooting Irish.
Wisconsin - North Carolina
LOS ANGELES -- Sam Dekker scored a career-high 23 points, Frank Kaminsky added 19 and top-seeded Wisconsin rallied in the final 10 minutes to hold off North Carolina 79-72 Thursday night and advance to the final eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Zak Showalter came off the bench to score six points in the Badgers' 19-7 comeback run that sent them into the West Regional final Saturday against No. 2 seed Arizona.
Brice Johnson and Justin Jackson scored 15 points each for the fourth-seeded Tar Heels (26-12), who got within one with 4:21 remaining but couldn't retake the lead they owned for much of the second half.
Marcus Paige hit consecutive 3-pointers that again drew Carolina within one with 54 seconds to go, but Wisconsin (34-3) made all eight of its free throws over the closing seconds.
Arizona - Xavier
LOS ANGELES -- T.J. McConnell scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half, freshman Stanley Johnson added 12 points, and second-seeded Arizona made a dominant late rally for a 68-60 victory over sixth-seeded Xavier in the West Regional semifinals on Thursday night.
Kaleb Tarczewski had 12 points and 12 rebounds as the Wildcats (34-3) weathered a major scare from the underdog Musketeers (23-14) and clamped down defensively during a game-ending 19-7 run.
Arizona is again on the brink of its first Final Four under coach Sean Miller, who led Xavier for five years until 2009.
Arizona will face top-seeded Wisconsin (34-3) on Saturday at Staples Center in a rematch of last season's West final.
Matt Stainbrook had 17 points and 10 rebounds in his final game for Xavier.