Kansas Jayhawks vs. UNC Tar Heels in men’s NCAA title game: Preview, lineups, TV time

The details

When/where: 8:20 p.m. Monday, Caesars Superdome, New Orleans

TV/radio: TBS; WHB (810 AM)

About No. 8 East seed North Carolina (29-9): North Carolina has won NCAA titles in 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009 and 2017. … The Tar Heels have won five consecutive games: NCAA Tournament contests against Duke (81-77), Saint Peter’s (69-49), UCLA (73-66), Baylor (93-86, OT), Marquette (95-63). … North Carolina is participating in its 21st Final Four. … Junior forward/center Armando Bacot was the most outstanding player of the East Regional. He scored 20 points and tied his career high with 22 rebounds in the Elite 8 vs. Saint Peter’s and averaged 16.5 points and 15.8 boards in UNC’s four NCAA regional wins. … Bacot had 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting in Saturday’s win over Duke. … Caleb Love scored 20 of UNC’s final 29 points, and 27 of his career-high 30 in the second half, to lead the Tar Heels over UCLA in the NCAAs. The win was Carolina’s fourth in 13 games this season when trailing at the half. Love scored 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting in the Final Four semifinal win over Duke. … Carolina head coach Hubert Davis is the 10th individual to lead a team to the Final Four in his first season as a college head coach, the first since his college assistant coach Bill Guthridge led the Tar Heels to the 1998 Final Four in San Antonio. Davis joins Guthridge, plus Bruce Drake, Oklahoma, 1939; Bully Gilstrap, Texas, 1943; Ray Meyer, DePaul, 1943; Gary Thompson, Wichita State, 1965; Denny Crum, Louisville, 1972; Bill Hodges, Indiana State, 1979; Larry Brown, UCLA, 1980; Steve Fisher, Michigan, 1989. … Davis is the the second individual to play in a Final Four game and be the head coach in a Final Four at the same school. Davis will join Dick Harp, who played for Kansas in the 1940 Final Four and was head coach of the Jayhawks in 1957 (in the championship game vs. UNC). Harp was an administrative assistant to Dean Smith at UNC from 1986-89, including the 1988-89 season when Jeff Lebo was a senior and current coach Davis a freshman. Davis scored 25 points against Kansas in the 1991 national semifinals in Indianapolis.

About No. 1 Midwest seed Kansas (33-6): KU trails the all-time series with North Carolina, 6-5. The Jayhawks have won the last three games in the series, which all were NCAA Tournament contests. KU won, 70-58, in the second round on March 24, 2013 at Sprint Center. The Jayhawks won, 80-67, in the Elite Eight on March 25, 2012 in St. Louis. KU won, 84-66, in the Final Four semifinals on April 5, 2008, in San Antonio. Prior to that, KU had lost to the Heels, 67-56, in the semifinals of the preseason NIT on Nov. 27, 2002 in New York and lost 78-68 in the Final Four semifinals on April 3, 1993 in New Orleans. In another postseason meeting, KU beat UNC 79-73, in the Final Four semifinals on March 30, 1991 in Indianapolis. Also, KU lost to UNC 54-53 in three overtimes in the national title game March 23, 1957 in Kansas City. … Kansas’ 11-point halftime lead (40-29) was KU’s largest halftime lead in the NCAA tournament semifinal game since out-scoring North Carolina 44-27 in the first half on April 5, 2008. The Jayhawks went on to win that game, 84-66. … Kansas’ 16-point victory is the largest in a Final Four game for the Jayhawks since defeating North Carolina, 86-66 on April 5, 2008 in San Antonio. … Kansas outrebounded Villanova, 35-29 on Saturday. Kansas is 28-0 this season when outrebounding its opponent and 417-50 under head Coach Bill Self. … KU has won 33 games for the first time since 2015-16. … KU is 11-1 in neutral-site games this season. … Kansas is 13-14 in NCAA Final Fours all-time. … KU is 44-13 all-time as the No. 1 seed. … Made Bill Self 762-229 all-time, 555-124 while at Kansas and 54-21 all-time in the NCAA Tournament (45-16 while at Kansas). … KU is 4-5 in NCAA Tournament games played in New Orleans.

Projected lineups

Gary Bedore

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4068

Gary Bedore covers KU basketball for The Kansas City Star. He has written about the Jayhawks since 1978 — during the Ted Owens, Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self eras. He has won the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year award and KPA writing awards.