Kansas Jayhawks vs. UNC Tar Heels is a historic title game no one expected this year
It’s comes down to this for the NCAA men’s basketball championship game on Monday night:
Can Kansas get up for its first shot at the championship since 2012?
Can North Carolina come down after beating Duke in an epic national semifinal contest?
Jayhawks-Tar Heels for the national championship, for the second time in NCAA history. If this one can live up to the first, which was its own incredible encounter: A triple-overtime victory by North Carolina over Wilt Chamberlain-led KU for the program’s first title that completed an undefeated 1957 season.
Kansas is an early four-point favorite in Monday’s game, which tips off at 8:20 p.m. Central time in New Orleans.
The Tar Heels’ magical run continued with an 81-77 triumph over the Blue Devils. Caleb Love was spectacular, scoring North Carolina’s final six points, including a dagger three-pointer with 28 seconds remaining.
The game was tied 12 times and the lead changed hands 18 times. A much hyped game lived up to the hoopla.
The result ended the coaching career of Duke’s legendary Mike Krzyzewski, who was making his 13th Final Four appearance in his 42nd year. He was bidding for his sixth national championship.
Instead, the title shot will go to North Carolina, an eighth-seed that has reached the championship game in the first year of head coach Hubert Davis.
Top-seeded KU blitzed Villanova 81-65 in what felt like an undercard semifinal. The Jayhawks scored the first 10 points and never trailed. They shot a season-best 54.2% on three-pointers and David McCormack scored a season-best 25 points.
The finalists are connected in many ways.
Davis replaced Roy Williams, who spent his first 15 years as a head coach at Kansas, reaching four Final Fours. He moved to his alma mater in Chapel Hill and won three NCAA titles.
North Carolina assistant coach Brad Frederick is the son of the late Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick.
Davis scored 25 points against Kansas in the 1991 national semifinals, won by KU over the Tar Heels, who were coached by Dean Smith — an Emporia native and Topeka High graduate who played at Kansas.
Smith was on Kansas’ first NCAA title team in 1952. The Jayhawks are bidding for their fourth NCAA championship and the second under coach Bill Self, who replaced Williams at KU after the 2003 season.
And Kansas seeks a national title in a meeting of bluebloods. The Jayhawks have lost the final game to Indiana twice, North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky.
But KU has won its previous three meetings against North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament, winning a 2013 second-round game, a 2012 regional final and a 2008 national semifinal game. The teams are meeting in the Final Four for the fifth time, the most common Final Four matchup in NCAA Tournament history.
Blueblood national championship games
2022: Kansas vs. North Carolina
2012: Kentucky 67, Kansas 59
1991: Duke 72, Kansas 65
1981: Indiana 63, North Carolina 50
1978: Kentucky 94, Duke 88
1975: UCLA 92, Kentucky 85
1968: UCLA 78, North Carolina 55
1964: UCLA 98, Duke 83
1957: North Carolina 54, Kansas 53, 3 OT
1953: Indiana 69, Kansas 69
1940: Indiana 60, Kansas 42
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 10:51 PM.