Kansas beat North Carolina in the NCAA men’s basketball title game in New Orleans on Monday, the program’s 4th national championship and the second for longtime coach Bill Self.
[Previous story, published at 1:30 p.m. ET]
Men’s college basketball titans North Carolina and Kansas will meet in the NCAA national championship game in New Orleans on Monday night at 9:20 p.m. ET, and one team will end the night by adding another trophy to its illustrious cabinet.
The 8th-seed UNC is the clear underdog despite the acclaimed team’s history of success, which includes six national titles. The Tar Heels (29-9) are led by coach Hubert Davis, who is in his first year in the role at UNC. He took over from Roy Williams, who retired after helming UNC for 18 seasons and Kansas for 15 years before that.
Kansas (33-6), a No. 1 seed, has had a less eventful journey to the title game. The Jayhawks survived close matchups with Creighton and Providence in the earlier rounds, and pulled away late in a romp over 10th-seed Miami to reach the Final Four.
Kansas coach Bill Self, who last won a national title in 2008, is searching for the program’s fourth championship. The Jayhawks lost in the title game in 2012 and were one of the favorites in 2020 before the tournament was canceled due to Covid-19. UNC has won six national titles in its history, including in 2005, 2009 and 2017.
Both UNC and Kansas rely on the steady hands of upperclassmen in a sport often defined by star one-and-done freshmen on their way to the NBA.
The Tar Heels feature the scoring and rebounding prowess of junior forward Armando Bacot, the big man who leads the team with 16 points per game. He pulled down 21 rebounds against Duke on Saturday and 22 against St. Peter’s, as UNC racked up a number of second-chance opportunities. However, Bacot hurt his ankle against Duke and could be limited in the title game.
Kansas, meanwhile, relies on the stellar shooting of Agbaji, who shot 41% from 3-point range this season and led the team in scoring with about 19 points per game. The Jayhawks use an inside-out game as they spread an array of shooters around McCormack’s 6-foot-10 presence in the paint.
Quoted from Various Sources
Published for: The Bloggers Briefing
