The University of Kansas defeated North Carolina on Monday in New Orleans, winning college basketball’s national championship and capping a season that marked the sport’s return to relative normalcy.
The Jayhawks’ 72-69 victory came after falling behind by 16 and then staging the biggest rally in any national championship game.
David McCormack’s jumper gave Kansas a 70-69 lead with 1:21 left and UNC’s Caleb Love, the hero of his team’s semifinal win on Saturday, to miss a potential shooting shot at the horn.
It was Kansas’ fourth NCAA Division I title, adding to a blue-blood history that’s matched by Connecticut’s four crowns and topped by UCLA (11), Kentucky (8), UNC (6), Duke (5) and Indiana (5) .
Six-time champ UNC has now lost in the title game six times. The Tar Heels are tied for the most runner-up finishes with, coincidentally, Kansas and Duke.
UNC reached Monday night’s title game with a drama-filled victory in Saturday’s national semifinals against bitter rival Duke. That game ended the career of legendary, and now retired, Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski.
The Jayhawks dominated Villanova in Saturday’s other national semifinal game and kept that momentum rolling into the title contest at the Superdome.
Monday night’s title game not only featured two of college basketball’s more storied programs, the floor was shared by two schools with remarkably close roots and ties to the sport’s very foundation.
Late Tar Heels coach and Kansas alum Dean Smith was a member of the Jayhawks’ 1952 NCAA title team before going on to his Hall of Fame career on the sidelines, leading UNC to championships in 1982 and 1993.
This was UNC coach Hubert Davis’ first season in charge, having taken over last year for the retired Roy Williams, who led the Tar Heels to national titles in 2005, 2009 and 2017. Before Williams, a UNC alum, arrived in Chapel Hill, he was the head coach at Kansas for 15 seasons, taking the Jayhawks to four Final Fours and two national title games.
Williams was in the Superdome stands on Monday night to see one former employer beat another in the final game of this 2021-22 college basketball season.
The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, dubbed March Madness and arguably America’s most popular sports competition, was played in March and these first few days of April under remarkably normal conditions, with games held in venues across the nation.
Just a year ago, the tournament was under attendance restrictions and confined to venues in Indiana as the NCAA, based in Indianapolis, in hopes of limiting the threat of Covid-19.
That bubble format still didn’t prevent a tournament game between Oregon and Virginia Commonwealth from being called off due to Covid issues.
March Madness was not played at all in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Before the 2019-20 season was shut down, Kansas was No. 1 in both major, national polls.
Covid still played a role in the now-concluded 2021-22 season as some games were postponed due to outbreaks and a handful of contests had limited attendance.
For example, the Yale Bulldogs, who won the Ivy League Tournament to earn a March Madness bid, played one home game in January behind closed doors and two more on campus with a mere 125 people watching in person due to the Omicron surge.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism