UNC falls to Kansas in down-to-the-wire national championship game, 72-69
North Carolina.
New Orleans Superdome.
National championship.
That was the formula for the Tar Heels’ national titles in 1982 and 1993. But on Monday night Kansas pulled some kind of voodoo in the Bayou. The Heels squandered a 16-point lead and found themselves on the wrong end of the largest comeback in NCAA championship game history, losing to the Jayhawks, 72-69.
It was the first time in program history that Carolina lost an NCAA tournament game with a double-digit halftime lead. It was previously 46-0.
“I said before that I can’t remember a time in my life where, I should be disappointed, but I’m just filled with so much pride,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. “I’m so proud of these guys of what they have done for themselves individually, as a team, the way that they have represented our university, this program, our community. I can’t ask for them to do any more than what they have done.”
Carolina missed two 3-point attempts to tie the game when Caleb Love and Puff Johnson both misfired in the final 15 seconds. KU was expecting to be fouled on the ensuing in-bounds play, but DaJuan Harris stepped out of bounds fielding a pass to give Carolina another chance with 4.3 seconds left.
The play was designed to get Brady Manek open in the corner. But he stumbled fighting through a pick, eliminating himself as an option. Caleb Love, who made the heroic 3-pointer to clinch Saturday’s win over Duke, attempted a shot over Christian Braun, but it was short as the clock hit zero. The Heels finished 5-for-23 from 3-point range, which was their worst performance of the tournament in both made 3s and their shooting percentage of 21.7 from behind the arc.
“We were just trying to remain positive and things weren’t going our way,” said guard R.J. Davis, who had 15 points and 12 rebounds. “The shots that we usually make, we were missing, coming up short.”
It was a deflating end to an improbable run to the title game for the Tar Heels. Hubert Davis was only the third coach in NCAA history to reach the title game in his first season. He was attempting to become the first to win it all in his first full season.
UNC just couldn’t muster enough offense in the second half.
Carolina (29-10) looked like it was going to run away with a win when it closed the half on an 18-3 run to take a 40-25 lead into the break. But just as the Jayhawks did to Miami trailing by six in the Elite Eight, they started the second half with a furious rally.
The Heels made just four of their first 18 shot attempts, as KU came all the way back, tying the game at 50 on a Ochai Agbaji three-point play with 10:53 left.
The Jayhawks used that momentum to overtake UNC for the lead and go ahead 56-50.
“They were getting a lot of transition buckets, they were getting a lot of points in the paint,” Love said. “They were just penetrating, doing whatever they wanted to do.”
R.J. Davis finally ended Carolina’s scoring drought, scoring consecutive baskets when they got a boost from an unlikely source.
Sophomore forward Puff Johnson was only in the game because senior Leaky Black picked up his fourth foul with 13:52 left in the game. Johnson had only scored in double figures twice this season. The last time was when he had 11 points against Marquette in the NCAA tournament’s first round.
Johnson made a 3-pointer in the left corner off a Davis assist, took a charge on Agbaji, and scored seven straight points for the Heels to pull them within one at 60-59. Johnson had 11 points, but had to come out of the game when he doubled over on the court and threw up after being struck in the stomach.
“I can honestly just say that I gave it everything I had,” Johnson said. “And that’s what I try to do each and every game and each and every day in life. I came into the Final Four with a bit of a banged-up hip flexor from what happened earlier in the season, reaggravated a little bit.”
Carolina had several plays where it looked like its players were injured. Manek took a wild arm to the face in the first half. Love was limping after he said he twisted his ankle twice in the second half. And Armando Bacot had to be helped off the floor with 48 seconds left after his injured right ankle buckled on a drive to the basket.
Bacot secured his 31st double-double of the season by halftime, scoring 12 points with 10 rebounds. In tying Navy’s David Robinson for the NCAA record, he set a new one for the NCAA tournament with a double-double in six games.
But it wasn’t the stat sheet that made his performance so special. The junior from Richmond, Va., clearly didn’t have the same bounce. Bacot sprained his right ankle in Saturday’s semifinal win over Duke when he rolled his ankle while stepping on Black’s foot.
“It was not just (Monday),” Davis said about Bacot’s gritty performance. “...I’ve had the privilege of seeing all of his hard work that he did in the offseason. He put himself in a position to be successful this year. I’ve seen the commitment that he has had and the desperation for him to make this team successful.”
What Bacot lacked in athleticism, he made up for with positioning, keeping Kansas defenders David McCormack, Mitch Lightfoot and K.J. Adams Jr. guessing which way he would pivot and what angles he’d use to get his shot off. When Bacot couldn’t secure a rebound himself, he’d tip the ball to a teammate or simply to keep it live.
“I really couldn’t, the whole game, get the push on anything on my post-ups, defensively, anything,” said Bacot, who finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds. “It was just like I kind of was out there and it was just hard for me to really just stand my ground.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 11:55 PM.