Kansas makes historic comeback in national title win over UNC

By Mark Bergin, WRAL senior multiplatform producer

North Carolina Tar Heels	69
3Kansas Jayhawks	72
Final

New Orleans — The Kansas Jayhawks made the largest comeback in the history of the NCAA Championship game in their 72-69 win Monday night against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

With 4.3 seconds left in the game, North Carolina guard Caleb Love missed a 3-pointer, and UNC was unable to get another shot attempt as time expired.

"Coach [Hubert] Davis and Coach [Brad] Frederick drew up a play for either Brady [Manek] or me to get the ball, and then if that wasn't open, it was whoever got open," Love said. "And so, it was kind of a screen to get me open, and it was supposed to be a screen for me to get a flare.

"I got the ball, and I took the shot, and we came up short."

The Tar Heels got the ball back with 4.3 seconds left and had one more possession after Kansas guard Dajuan Harris stepped out of bounds while trying to retrieve an inbounds pass. Kansas had the ball leading 72-69 after UNC forward Brady Manek threw the ball out of bounds. Manek's turnover came after getting an offensive rebound following a Puff Johnson missed three-point jumper.

Love finished the game with 13 points on 5-of-24 shooting from the floor, including 1-of-8 from 3-point range.

"It hurts for us to get this far, and come up short like this [with] everything we went through, but the positive thing is I wouldn't want to go through this with anybody else," Love said.

KU's David McCormack scored the go-ahead basket with 1:21 left in the second half, and then hit another shot at the 22-second mark. It put the Jayhawks up by 3 points.

McCormack and Jalen Wilson led the Jayhawks in scoring with 15 points each.

UNC missed its final four shots. The Tar Heels went scoreless in the final 1:41.

In the postgame news conference, Love said he rolled his ankle twice during the game.

After the game, Davis explained what he shared with his team in the locker room after the loss.

"My desperation for them to have those experiences in a Carolina uniform was very important for me," Davis said. "And I was very thankful that I feel like this year, they were able to have not just... They were able to have a number of experiences that they could grab on and to lean on and to smile about.

"The thing I shared with them in the locker room is, along the way as they were experiencing it, they were giving me more stories and testimonies and memories by just having a front-row seat to be around them."

North Carolina was vying to become to become just the second No. 8 seed to win the national championship. The Villanova Wildcats are the only No. 8 seed to win the title, when they won it in 1985.

The Jayhawks erased a 16-point deficit after having trailed the Tar Heels 38-22 with 2:11 in the first half.

It was the largest comeback in national championship history, surpassing the 1963 title game when Loyola overcame a 15-point deficit to beat Cincinnati at the buzzer, 60-58. On Monday night, KU was down 40-25 at halftime.

Entering Monday, North Carolina was 46-0 in the NCAA Tournament all-time when leading by double digits at the half, the longest streak by any team in NCAA Tournament history. They're now 46-1.

Kansas guard Ochai Agbaji was named the 2022 Final Four Most Outstanding Player. He had 12 points on Monday night.

UNC forward Armando Bacot had 15 points on 3-of-13 shooting and 15 rebounds. It made him the first player to record six double-doubles in a single NCAA Tournament. The feat also matches Navy's David Robinson's Division I single-season record of 31 double-doubles.

"We all really wanted to win," Bacot said. "We came this far, and this was a huge goal for us was just to hang up a banner.

"We just really wanted to win."

Bacot's 99 rebounds in the 2022 NCAA Tournament rank second all-time in a single NCAA Tournament. He battled through an ankle injury sustained during UNC's Final Four win over Duke.

"The last 24 hours probably 15 of them [were] just me trying to get my ankle better," Bacot said. "Right before the game, I really couldn't even jump."

Late in the second half, Bacot twisted his ankle on a drive to the basket and he did not return to the game. Bacot played 38 minutes in the loss.

Love and Bacot were named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team along with McCormack, Agbaji and Duke forward Paolo Banchero.