Kansas can call it a comeback for years.
The biggest comeback in the history of the national championship game, that is.
The Jayhawks, the last No. 1 seed standing in the 2022 men's basketball tournament, rallied from a 16-point deficit in the second half to beat No. 8 North Carolina 72-69 at the Caesars Superdome on Monday.
Kansas (34-6) won its first national championship since 2008. Five Jayhawks scored double figures, and Bill Self won his second national championship with the program.
North Carolina (29-10) collapsed in the second half after building a 40-25 lead halftime. The Tar Heels got the ultimate rivalry win against No. 2 Duke in the national semifinals, but first-year coach Hubert Davis' bid for a national championship fell short.
Here is a look at the highlights and lowlights from the title game between the Jayhawks and Tar Heels.
Winners
Bill Self
Self was up-front about what was at stake for the Jayhawks in their quest to break a national championship drought that extends back to 2008. "I think as many good teams as we've had, one's not enough," Self said on April 3.
Kansas joins the four-or-more club that includes UCLA (11), Kentucky (8), North Carolina (7), Duke (5), Indiana (4) and UConn (4). The Jayhawks also improved to 4-0 in tournament games against the Tar Heels since Roy Williams left for the North Carolina job.
It was an emotional victory for Self, whose father Bill Self Sr. died on Jan. 20. With Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski retiring, Self also joins Villanova's Jay Wright and Iona's Rick Pitino as the only active coaches with multiple national championships.
That should at least temporarily take away talk about the ongoing NCAA investigation into allegations of five Level I violations against the program. A national championship will do that every time.
Martin and McCormack
It sounds like a TBS sitcom after the game, right? In this case, it was the winning combination for the Jayhawks in the second-half comeback.
Remy Martin hit all four shots he took in the second half, including three 3-pointers. The last was a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:39 remaining. Martin, a super sub off the bench, scored 14 points.
David McCormack then closed the deal with back-to-back baskets in the paint. He had 15 points and 10 rebounds in a double-double. "When we had to have a basket, we went to Big Dave and he delivered," Self said on the CBS telecast afterward.
Jalen Wilson scored 15 points, and Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun scored 12 points each. This is the group that will wear that "Comeback" label and maintain a special place in Kansas lore. It was a well-rounded effort by the star players.
Big 12 basketball
Kansas and Baylor now have won back-to-back national championships. It's the first time in the Expanded Bracket Era that the conference has won consecutive national titles.
It's also the fifth time a conference had two different schools win back-to-back titles since 1985. Duke and North Carolina did that in 1992-93 and 2009-10.
Kansas quietly went about its business as the No. 1 seed that delivered. The Jayhawks won their tournament games by an average of 14 points per game; an almost identical run to the 2008 national championship team.
The Jayhawks also weathered a six-minute meltdown in the first half with the second-half comeback. Kansas shot 57.8% from the floor in the second half.
Baylor couldn't finish its 25-point comeback in the second round against the Tar Heels. The Jayhawks were happy to oblige.
Losers
North Carolina injuries
Perhaps the best player in the tournament wasn't on the final floor in the final minute. Bacot aggravated an ankle injury suffered in the Duke victory when he tried to drive to the basket on McCormack with 51 seconds left. With him out of the game, McCormack scored a key basket in the lowpost to push Kansas lead to three with 22 seconds left. It turned out to be the final points of the game.
Bacot, who finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds, had a double-double by halftime. He finished the tournament with 99 rebounds, and he didn't get a chance to grab 100.
That wasn't the only North Carolina injury. Puff Johnson, who emerged as another super sub with 11 points off the bench, was hit in the stomach in the second half and left the game with 4:23 to play. He threw up on the floor and was having trouble on the bench. Caleb Love rolled his right ankle with 13:52 to play and was clearly impaired for the next five game minutes before appearing to be almost full speed for the remainder of the game. Brady Manek was hit by an inadvertent McCormack elbow in the first half that stopped the game, but Manek did not miss any time.
UNC's last two possessions
Davis, who had a hype "live action" in-game interview in the first half, enjoyed an incredible tournament run that solidified his status as the successor to Roy Williams, but the last two sequences after McCormack's bucket with 22 seconds left will be questioned.
North Carolina shot 5 of 23 from 3-point range in the game, and the last three misses will be remembered most.
The Tar Heels didn't take a timeout and settled for a contested three-pointer from Love. Johnson had a second look from three, which Manek rebounded before throwing the ball out of bounds.
Game over, right? Not quite. Kansas' Dajuan Harris stepped out of bounds on the ensuing inbound pass, giving the Tar Heels one more shot. Love missed a desperation 3-pointer.
Bettors who took Kansas -4 were losers on that sequence, too.
Coach K farewell tour
Duke wasn't there for this one. The Blue Devils, of course, lost 81-77 to North Carolina on Saturday night. That marked the final game for Krzyzewski and denied an opportunity for the legendary coach to close out his career with a national championship shot against the team he beat in 1991.
DECOURCY: Coach K ends legendary career with agonizing loss
North Carolina, however, did not take advantage of winning the first tournament game against the Blue Devils. For rivalry's sake, that might not matter. But blowing a 16–point lead in the championship game will remain a footnote in that story.
The rivalry between Davis and new coach Jon Scheyer is on. Which coach will win a national championship first? That is the next trump card in the Tobacco Road rivalry.
