By TERESA M. WALKER
AP Sports Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn.(AP) -- John Calipari brought Kentucky to town
focused most on the NCAA tournament.

An arena dripping Kentucky blue with Wildcats faithful filling
the streets outside has changed his intentions, and now Calipari
wants to reward their loyalty by winning the Southeastern
Conference tournament title those fans see as their birthright.

Oh, he still wants a No. 1 seed.

The No. 2 Wildcats made a strong argument for the top overall
spot by handing 15th-ranked Tennessee a 74-45 loss Saturday in
the tournament semifinals - the Volunteers' most lopsided under
coach Bruce Pearl. But Calipari said he understands the
importance after seeing fans spending up to $1,000 per ticket
and vacationing in Nashville to support the Cats.

"As a coach you owe it to them to give them your best," Calipari
said. "They tell me 180,000 fans came to Nashville. Is that
true? Kentucky fans. And only 17,000 could get in the building.
... It's unbelievable. The blue dust is everywhere. It's
incredible."

Kentucky (31-2) will play defending champ Mississippi State, a
62-52 winner over No. 20 Vanderbilt, on Sunday, looking to add a
26th tournament title to the 44th regular season championship
the Wildcats already won in Calipari's first season.

DeMarcus Cousins had 19 points and 15 rebounds as Kentucky
advanced to the final for the first time since 2004. Eric
Bledsoe had 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point range, and
John Wall added 14. The Wildcats improved to a league-best
113-22 in this tournament and 35-2 in the semifinals.

Bledsoe said winning the tournament title would mean a lot to a
team featuring five freshmen.

"We're trying to do something special. So far we're doing it, so
we're going to keep on playing," Bledsoe said.

Scotty Hopson had 11 points for Tennessee (25-8), which snapped
a five-game winning streak with its worst scoring performance
this season.

"We got outplayed at every position, and Kentucky's the No. 2
team in the country for a reason. They're a really, really good
team," Pearl said. "We just did not have the energy after
playing two games and coming back and playing this third game.
We just didn't have it."

The well-rested Wildcats never trailed and scored 14 straight
points to push the lead to 29 late. That was even though Cousins
missed a layup off the opening tip. He came back and dunked to
put Kentucky ahead, and the best Tennessee could do was tie the
Wildcats three times - the last at 10.

These programs don't like each other anyway in the SEC's
second-longest series. The addition of Calipari, who brought his
personal rivalry with Pearl from Memphis, and the high
expectations from both teams created an electric atmosphere not
seen at this tournament in many years.

Kentucky came in trying to cement a No. 1 seed in the NCAA
tournament, while Tennessee hoped a win would help earn a No. 3
seed.

It was billed as a neutral court game, but the transformation of
Bridgestone Arena into Rupp South couldn't have been clearer
than a text poll in the first half posted on the video board
about which team fans expected to win. Kentucky drew 77 percent
in the early results.

Every time Tennessee's pep band cranked up "Rocky Top," the
Wildcats' fans did their best to drown it out, chanting, "Go Big
Blue."

Tennessee point guard Bobby Maze noticed the blue crowd in the
quarterfinals and said Kentucky fans travel like the "Million
Man March." So the Vols knew exactly what they'd be walking into
on a court technically in their home state but about three hours
away from campus - just as it is for the Wildcats.

And Pearl had his orange blazer packed and ready for this game
against the opponent Tennessee wants to measure its basketball
program against. The Vols were the last team to beat Kentucky -
74-65 in Knoxville on Feb. 27 - as they split the regular season
series.

"We had enough fans in there that when we made our runs, we
could hear our people in the building," Pearl said. "Certainly,
Kentucky enjoys a great home-court advantage, and I think it
elevated their play."

Yes, it did.

Kentucky wound up winning its fourth straight by holding
Tennessee to a season-low 19 points in the first half. The
Wildcats improved to 5-1 in SEC semifinals and 144-66 all-time
against the Vols.

"I feel like we were playing at our arena to see our fans
there," Wall said. "We just feel like everywhere we go our fans
support us the most. ... You can see how loud they are in the
background."

The Volunteers, playing their third game in as many days, got
into early foul trouble, and they spent more time pleading with
officials than hitting shots. Kentucky did hit more free throws
(16-of-30) than Tennessee attempted (9-of-15).

Officials were busy, handing out double technicals twice in the
second half with Tennessee guard Melvin Goins ejected after both
a technical and a flagrant foul with 3:33 left.

"They obviously had us frustrated," senior guard J.P. Prince
said. "We didn't make shots. We just got in a hurry. We kind of
lost our composure at the end and didn't execute, listen to the
coaches and overall just kind of let it go at the end."

Tennessee pulled within 45-39 on a bucket by Brian Williams with
9:27 left. That was as close as the Vols would get.

Patrick Patterson dunked for only his second field goal, Bledsoe
hit a 3, then Darnell Dodson made consecutive 3s before dunking
on an alley-oop pass from Darius Miller to put Kentucky up 58-41
with 6:02 remaining. The Cats just kept adding to it from there.