Kansas uses historic rally to beat North Carolina for national championship
NEW ORLEANS — North Carolina came into the night chasing history, looking to match the 1985 Villanova team as the lowest see🐽d to win it all. At halftime, the Tar Heels appeared primed to etch their name into the record books.
Instead, it was Kansas — with aꦐ 180-degree turn after intermission — that made this night a memorable one.
The top-seeded Jayhawks rallied from a 16-point, first-half deficit — the largest for a champion in NCAA Tournament history — in a dramatic, 7❀2-69 victory over No. 8 North Carolina in front of 69,423 Monday at the Caesars Superdome.
“Legendary,” marveled Kansas forward David McCormack, who scored the game’s final — and decid🎃ing — four points in the last 1:21 of regulation. “Legendary.”
When Caleb Love’s 3-pointer failed to draw iron at the buzzer, a raucous celebration began, 14 years in the making. Kansas had won it all for the first time since 2008, and for the fourth time in school history. Bill Self became the first Kansas coach in its storied history to cut down ♕the nets multiple times. Ochai Agbaji was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
“It would be🔯 special to win regardless,” Self said. “But to win when your team had to fight and come back the way they did and show that much grit makes this one off the charts.”
It was 40-25 Carolina at halftime. It was 38-22 at one point late in the first half. Kansasꩵ seemed like it was ready to get run out of the building. It all changed when the two teams went into their respective locker rooms.
Self lit into his pl🌌ayers, and reminded them that it was better to trail by 15 with 20 minutes left than nine with two min🔯utes remaining. McCormack was smiling, telling his teammates they had plenty of time and to savor their final game together.
“People thought I was▨ delusional,” he recalled with a smile. “[I told them], ‘Go out having the best time of your life and everything else will fall into place.’ That’s exactly what happened tonight.”
Teammate Christian Braun didn’t understand why McCormack was💦 grinning — “we’re down 15,” he told his teammate — but it may have loosened him up. The junior wing keyed the chargꦉe to start the second half, scoring 10 of his 12 points in a 20-6 run to trim the deficit to one.
It went back and forth for much of a thrilling second half. Kansas led by six. North Carolina (29-10) rallied to take back the lead. In the final minutes, the Jayhawks found a way. McCormack gave them the lead with an offensive rebound and jumper with 1:21 to go. Then after a gimpy Armando Bacot (15 points, 15 rebounds) lost the ball on a drive, McCormack scored again, 🅰capping an unforgettable Final Four weekend in which he tallied 40 points and 19 rebounds.
“Game’s on the line,” the senior said. “You’ve got adrenaline pumping, you’ve got a desire that 🐠you’re go🔯ing to get it.”
The game was not over, even after Love and Puff Johnson each missed on the other end, and Brady Manek threw the ball away following his offensive rebound. In this wild NCAA Tournament full of upsets, there was⛎ one turn left. Dajuan Harris Jr. stepped out of bounds after racing up the right sideline, giving North Carolina one last chance with 4.3 seconds to go. But Love was well short at the horn, his 19th miss in 24 shot attempts. ;
It was fitting that a defensꦉive stop clinched the title for Kansas (34-6). It was a defensive menace in the second half, limiting explosive North Carolina to 29 points on 27 percent shooting and forcing eight turnovers. It held the big three of Love, Bacot and R.J. Davis to 13 of 54 shooting. It was as stingy over the final 20 minutes as the first half was porous.
“That’s about as🌳 go💛od defensively as a team can play in the second half,” Self said.
When Kansas won it all 14 years ago, it rallied from a nine-point deficit with 2:12 left to top Memphis in overtime. That game is remembered as Mario’s Miraclꦜe — Mario Chalmers hit a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds to go to force the extra session. This result was just as unlikely, although far earlier in the game.
“This,” Self said, “is the 2022 miracle.”
