Men's NCAA championship: Kansas rallies for record-setting comeback
By Laken Litman
FOX Sports Writer
That one turned quickly.
After a sluggish opening 20 minutes in which Kansas scored its fewest points in a NCAA Tournament half this season, the Jayhawks made the largest comeback in national championship game history to beat North Carolina 72-69 and win the program’s fourth national title.
"I was in the locker room, and I was smiling to my teammates," Kansas big man David McCormack told the broadcast after the game. "They thought I was crazy. I said, ‘Yo, we just come out here, have fun and do what we were born to do. I looked at Ochai [Agbaji]. I looked at [Christian Braun]. I looked at everybody. Do what got us to this moment, and we just executed."
North Carolina went on a 25-7 run to close out the first half and take a 40-25 edge at the break after leading by as many as 16 points. The Tar Heels were making their shots, playing physical, dominating the paint, dominating the glass and making their free throws.
Kansas, meanwhile, had missed countless layups and was out of sync offensively. It seemed like everything was coming together for Hubert Davis to win a championship in his first season as North Carolina’s head coach.
Kansas defeats North Carolina to win the NCAA Tournament
That’s when McCormack riled up his teammates. They had too much to play for and weren’t going down like this. The Jayhawks responded by opening the second half with a 31-10 run. They got out and ran after forcing turnovers and securing long rebounds, putting UNC on its heels.
In the final 20 minutes, Kansas scored 14 points off turnovers (UNC had just two). Braun, Remy Martin and Jalen Wilson, who combined to score nine points in the first half, scored 32 in the second.
"We were disappointed in how we played in the first half," coach Bill Self said. "Carolina was obviously the much better team. But this team has been down before. I told them at halftime, ‘Would you rather be down 15 with 20 left or down nine with two left?’ Because that was obviously what happened in [the] 2008 [title game]. And they all said, ‘Let’s take 15.’ So, we played off of that."
McCormack finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, Braun had 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Agbaji had 12 points and was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
One of the most popular storylines heading into this matchup was North Carolina forward Armando Bacot and his right ankle, which he injured in the semifinal victory over rival Duke on Saturday. Bacot wasn’t 100 percent Monday, and it was obvious, but he said nothing was going to prevent him from playing in the biggest game of his life.
He was limping around, moving slowly and had minimal elevation; he was basically playing on one leg. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound junior still had his 31st double-double of the season — tying the NCAA record set by David Robinson in 1985-86 — with 15 points and 15 rebounds, including six offensive boards.
But with less than a minute to play and Kansas up by one, Bacot rolled the same ankle again and, this time, couldn’t play through it. He drove in the lane against McCormack, planted wrong and fell to the floor. He got up and tried to hop it off, but he was finished for the night.
North Carolina's improbable NCAA Tournament run comes up short
On the other end, McCormack, who scored the last four points for his team, hit a short jumper to extend the Jayhawks’ lead by three.
"When we had to have a basket, we went to Big Dave," Self said.
North Carolina was still alive, down by three points, with 4.3 seconds left. Caleb Love, the buzzer-beating hero against Duke, attempted a game-tying 3, but his shot fell short just before the clock ran out.
"It felt good when he missed," said Braun, who contested that final shot.
Self is now the first coach in Kansas history to win multiple national titles. He earned his first in 2008, when the Jayhawks beat a Memphis team that featured Derrick Rose and was coached by John Calipari. Kansas planned on winning the school’s fourth title in 2020 and was poised to do so. But then the COVID-19 pandemic derailed those plans.
Two years later, the Jayhawks made up for lost time, honoring that 2020 group and Self, whose father and mentor died in January.
"We overcame the odds," Agjabi said. "We’re just built for this."
Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously covered college football, college basketball, the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team and the Olympics at Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. Her first book, written in partnership with Rizzoli and Sports Illustrated and titled "Strong Like a Woman," will be published this spring marking the 50th anniversary of Title IX.
