And that is precisely why his former team, the Kansas Jayhawks, is going to have a chance to win the NCAA title on Monday night against Memphis -- and his Tar Heels are not.

Although UNC (36-3) rallied to cut a 28-point deficit to four, it couldn't manage a defensive stop when it needed it most, losing 84-66 in the national semifinals at the Alamodome.

In the end, the offensive juggernaut was held to a season-low 35.8 percent shooting. The top rebounding team in the ACC was beaten on the boards by nine. It allowed the Jayhawks to shoot 53.1 percent. And it came two victories short of its ultimate goal.

"We talked before this game about how, in order to do the things we want to do this weekend, we have to continue to get better defensively, and we have to show that we're the best defensive team out here," said UNC junior Marcus Ginyard. "And tonight, our defense didn't perform. ... And the best team standing is going to be the best defensive team out there."

That might just be the Jayhawks, who never trailed.

"We can talk about how poorly we played all night, but you've got to tip your hat to them -- they hit their shots, we didn't," UNC senior Quentin Thomas said.

They didn't allow the Tar Heels a chance.

Defense had been UNC's weak spot all season. Thomas said recently that early in the year, "our cockiness in our offense was so high that we were like, 'We can always outscore somebody.' " The Tar Heels thought they had solved those sticky woes, but they reverted early Saturday.

After forward Deon Thompson scored on an inside move to cut UNC's deficit to 15-10 with 13:35 left in the first half, Kansas went on a 25-2 run during which Carolina missed 13 shots, had two others blocked and committed four turnovers.

The Jayhawks (36-3) were so smothering that the Tar Heels could barely get a pass off -- and when they did, it got picked off. Meanwhile, UNC appeared a step slow defensively from the outset, allowing the Jayhawks guards to penetrate and their big men to control the lane. At one point, Kansas forward Cole Aldrich even muscled a rebound away from Tyler Hansbrough -- a true rarity, and one of the reasons KU had an eight-rebound advantage by halftime.

"It's the first time this North Carolina team panicked,'' Ginyard said. "... I was just embarrassed --embarrassed that this team came out with a lack of effort like that, especially here in the Final Four, so close to our biggest goal and dream. ... And that's something we're going to think about for the rest of our lives, coming to the Final Four and not giving the effort that we needed."

The Tar Heels finally broke their drought when Ty Lawson made two free throws and then Wayne Ellington scored in transition, and was fouled, with 4:32 left. His free throw cut Kansas' overwhelming advantage to 40-17 -- pushing the baby blue crowd to its feet in the hopes that something miraculous might happen.

That three-point play actually began a 13-4 Carolina run before halftime, fueled by eight points from Danny Green.

"As good as we played early, we played about that poorly in the middle," Jayhawks coach Bill Self said. "You know, their best offense the second half was our offense -- because we just turned it over and let them get easy baskets."

Carolina, which shot 29 percent in the first half, trailed 44-27 at the break. But with 16:30 left, a free throw by Thompson cut Kansas' lead to 54-37 and began a 14-0 run during which Green scored five more points and Ellington added six -- including a layup that cut it to 54-50 with about 13 minutes left.

But it was as close as UNC got. Jayhawks guard Brandon Rush made a layup with 10:53 left to stop the run, and Carolina couldn't put together enough defensive stops to come all the way back.

Ellington led the Tar Heels with 18 points, Hansbrough finished with 17 and Green chipped in 15.

Rush led the Jayhawks with 25.

"It was like, that wasn't North Carolina out there,'' Thomas said. "I told someone it looked like we have never played basketball before. It looked like the first time we had ever walked on a basketball court."

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