— Kansas won the national championship on Monday night with a thrilling 72-69 victory over North Carolina. It is the fourth title for the Jayhawks in ten championship games and the second for coach Bill Self. That ties him with Villanovacoach Jay Wright for the most among active coaches.
North Carolina had a 15-point lead at halftime, 40-25. It was a story of two halves. In the second half, Kansas outscored North Carolina 47-29. North Carolina shot 11 for 40 in the second half. Kansas would tie it at 50-50 with 10:53 remaining in the game on a free throw by Big 12 Player of the Year Ochai Agbaji. From there, it was a back-and-forth game with two ties and four lead changes.
David McCormack, the big man for the Jayhawks, had a career-high game on Saturday in the semifinal win over Villanova. He struggled in the first half against UNC but came to play in the second. He scored the go-ahead shot with 1:21 left in the game, then eachanother with 0:22 remaining to put the Jayhawks up by three, and it was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish
The win by Kansas gave the Big 12 back-to-back national championships. Baylor won the 2021 championship with an 86-70 win over previously undefeated Gonzaga. It also marked the third straight national championship game that featured a team from the Big 12. Texas Tech lost a heartbreaker in the 2019 championship game, losing to Virginia 85-77 In overtime. There was no NCAA tournament in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Comments