In the title game, Sean identifies two key players for North Carolina and Kansas. There is a time and a place for it. Two college basketball programs will compete for the right to add another banner to the home rafters on Monday night. The Kansas Jayhawks and the North Carolina Tar Heels will play for the NCAA Division I men's basketball national championship in New Orleans. The Jayhawks will be trying to win their fourth national championship and first since 2008 when they defeated Memphis in the title game. Bill Self and his team are in the title game for the first time since 2012 when they lost to Kentucky. The Tar Heels are trying to lift their seventh championship trophy and first under head coach Hubert Davis. The UNC team is attempting to become the lowest seed to win a national championship in the history of the game. To prepare for Monday night's event, Myron Medcalf, Jeff Borzello, John Gasaway and Joe Lunardi made predictions for which team would come away with the win. I know it is a cliché, but I think Kansas has its most impressive trait. I was thinking about that when I watched the game. In the second half, Jay Wright put together a plan to stop the Jayhawks' offense and give his short-handed squad a chance. The Jayhawks were on the biggest stage in the entire sport, a 38-19 lead had been cut to single digits and the crowd could sense that it might be watching one of the great comebacks in NCAA tournament history, but it never felt like the Jayhawks were in any real danger. Even when it was six points down, Kansas responded and won by double digits. The tone of this team throughout the NCAA tournament has been that. The offense of Kansas was rolling in the second round. Kansas took it back in the Sweet 16 after Providence took a late lead. In the Elite Eight, Miami had a 35-29 lead at the half, and then Kansas scored 47-15 in the second half. The best teams have been playing on a scale of 1 to 10, but it seems as if Kansas can reach a Level 15 beyond what any opposing team has been able to counter. When the Jayhawks are struggling, they remain calm and go for the finish when they are ahead. That has been the most impressive part of the team. Borzello thinks that it is their balance and ability to score efficiently from every area of the floor. Ochai Agbaji has finally found his rhythm in the past three quarters. He scored five points against Providence in the Sweet 16 but was quiet for the rest of the tournament. He woke up in the second half against Miami and has been on a tear ever since. He made six 3s and scored 21 points. He was the reason Kansas made seven 3s in the first 14 minutes against the Wildcats, after making seven 3s in a game just once in the past month. It is not just Agbaji. The man was unstoppable with 25 points down low. Christian Braun has bought into his role as a perimeter shot-maker and passer. In the NCAA tournament, Wilson has become more consistent. In the first three games of the tournament, Kansas had more than enough weapons to handle an off-night from one of its top scorers, but in the past two games, that has not been the case. It will be interesting to see which players North Carolina keys on. David McCormack jumped up to throw down a dunk over Samuels. The most impressive thing about the Kansas team is that they have won games in a variety of ways. The current version of the Jayhawks has an incredible offense that has allowed them to ground out victories over Miami and Villanova. The three dominant and most recent halves featured a KU offense that is operating at the sport's performance horizon. The team has hit 18 3s and scored 128 points in 95 possessions. Most of the heroes in that stretch have been from the other side of the story. Just a few days ago, this same team was winning with defense. The victory over Providence was a good old fashioned rock fight. The Jayhawks missed 22 of 42 tries inside the arc and 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 That kind of flexibility is impressive. It suggests that the Jayhawks will still be tough to beat even if their perimeter shots aren't falling. When a preseason player of the year is brought off the bench, a team has a lot of power. Kansas has more ways to beat you than any other team. We saw a lot of defense in the second half of the Miami game and the first half of the Villanova game. Look out when Agbaji rediscovers his shooting touch. The team I picked to win the national championship back in November was not the one that had chemistry issues and was without a healthy Martin for much of the season. It was easy to forget about the Jayhawks after their embarrassing home loss to Kentucky, but Bill Self had plenty of time and pieces to reassemble. If Moore had been healthy, the Jayhawks would have beaten the Cats in the semifinals. The Jayhawks have played two games in this tournament and they have beaten both teams. North Carolina will need to be perfect to prevent a Kansas championship. Christian Braun hit a clutch 3-pointer as the Jayhawks sealed their spot in the national championship game. The stat I saw on Saturday night summed up the performance of the coach in the NCAA tournament thus far. The last team to beat UCLA, Duke and Kansas in the same season was Notre Dame in 1973. Over the course of 10 days, Davis has a chance to do that. .@UNC_Basketball has beaten UCLA and Duke and now faces Kansas in the title game. No team has beaten UCLA, Duke and Kansas in the same season (whether in the NCAA Tournament or otherwise) since Digger Phelps' Notre Dame squad did it in 1973-74.Kansas has played three straight dominant halves in wins over Miami and Villanova. What (or who) has impressed you most about the Jayhawks during this run?
What would a national championship in his first NCAA tournament say about North Carolina's Hubert Davis?
In his first season at the helm, Davis went from getting blasted by pretty much every good team Carolina faced during the first half of the season to putting up 94 points. As the season has progressed, he has figured out how to put his four stars in optimal positions to make plays. A national championship is a sacred ground for college basketball coaches, and Davis is on the verge of getting there in Year 1. Really, really amazing.
The best thing about Hubert Davis is that he gives you what you want. He is unafraid to express his feelings in good times and bad. If the night ends with a net around his neck, he will be the same person.
The title confirms the perfect decision to elevate Davis to replace Roy Williams. Carolina becomes a destination program in the long term. The national champion of a coach is what would make people want to play for it.
All of those things are true victories for the Tar Heels. A loss to Kansas might be crushing in the moment, but in all likelihood it's just a championship delayed for their coach.
The UNC win over Duke in the NCAA tournament was a big deal.
It means "Welcome to the club", right? This group is very exclusive. Rick Pitino, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim, Bill Self, John Calipari, Jay Wright, Tony Bennett and Scott Drew are the only active head coaches who have won a national title. We make a distinction between the winning and losing coaches on the first Monday in April. We know the years when they all won their titles and who their star players were. The runners-up do not work the same way. Brad Stevens and Mark Few seem to be carrying on well under the circumstances. Davis' legacy will be defined if he captures a title in his first season.
You can watch every Men's NCAA Tournament game live. March Madness is live.
There would be pros and cons. Tubby Smith won a national title in his first season at Kentucky, and I had a lot of conversations with him about it. After he won the title in 1998, it was difficult to win it again. A win on Monday night would continue to show that Davis is the next Roy Williams. He doesn't need a win to do that, but a victory would elevate him in the eyes of the program's supporters. He would get more time to put his stamp on the program.
There is no plan for this. Two Final Fours were made by Bill Guthridge, who was Dean Smith's assistant. Matt was in a three-year stint. Smith, Williams and Davis are the only other coaches who have had that job. A win would say that the era of Hubert Davis is here, but it would also mean more pressure on Davis to win big every year. It could be a lot for a coach to digest.
The second half of the game between Duke and North Carolina is when the Tar Heels run away with it.
The injured ankle is what it has to be. If Bacot is healthy, North Carolina will have to contend with David McCormack. I am not sure if there is enough length or fouls in the Carolina frontcourt to keep him from carving up the lane if he is limited.
It is almost impossible for me to find a formula that works for the Tar Heels against the current version of the Jayhawks without a double-double from Bacot. He is crucial to this match up.
Wills Reed, anyone?
The person is Gasaway and the one is Love. He has had 30 days. The All-ACC teams were announced at the beginning of the time period. Love was not on the first or second team. He was named honorable mention. We are talking about a tournament sensation who put his team on his back and erupted for 22 points in one half to end Mike Krzyzewski's coaching career in a national semifinal at the Superdome. Not bad for an honorable mention winner. There should be a rule against saddling any player with the Kemba Walker tag, but Love has done the most in this tournament to create his own label for future comparisons.
Ochai Agbaji hit six 3-pointers to help the Jayhawks get to the national title game.
Medcalf thinks it is Ochai Agbaji. The way Bill Self plays has an impact on the team's shooting ability. I think he is correct. Agbaji was a big reason why the Jayhawks made so many 3-point attempts. He will be the best player on the floor. Multiple players in a national championship game is not something we talk about. We talk about the player who separated himself from the rest in the most important moment of the season. I think Agbaji will be that for Kansas. If he's on a roll, Kansas could do to North Carolina what it has done to every other team that stood in its way during this NCAA tournament and secure Bill Self's second national championship.
Since he got to Chapel Hill nearly two years ago, Borzello says the answer is Caleb Love. During the regular season, the Tar Heels beat four NCAA tournament teams. Love had at least 20 points in all four of those games. He hit the threshold against power-conference teams three times.
In the NCAA tournament, he has averaged 20.0 points and put the Tar Heels on his back at times. The biggest shot of the game and the final six points for Carolina came against Duke in the Final Four. Love is playing at an extremely high level right now and will need to continue to perform for Carolina to win.
The 12th championship game will be between North Carolina and Kansas.
The two teams are a perfect match for each other and they have the same philosophy. They both have one traditional big and then they let the other players on the floor float and play in a free-flowing style. North Carolina and Kansas are in the top 20 in adjusted offensive efficiency.
This is not always the case in the national championship, but you could make a strong case that the two best teams in college basketball will play each other on Monday. In the final minutes of games, North Carolina has found a way to win. UNC beat the Bears in overtime after they came back from a huge deficit. The Tar Heels did the same thing against Duke.
The challenge is that Kansas has not allowed any team to take control of the game. I don't think the Jayhawks will do that here. The game will be close until the last 10 minutes. Bill Self and Kansas will win the national title with an offensive performance that will be seen as a sign of their superiority.
The Medcalf score prediction was for Kansas.
Borzello: I find it hard to go against Carolina the way the Tar Heels are playing. There are a few reasons. The pure emotion of the game. The Tar Heels deserved to celebrate at the final buzzer like they did in the win over Duke. Can Carolina get back to that level for Kansas? Saturday night took a lot out of the Tar Heels, both physically and emotionally.
Bacot has an injury. He will play, but will he be 100 percent? Bacot needs to win that match because we know what McCormack can do on the interior. If he is not at full strength, can he win it both in terms of points and rebound, but also staying on the floor and out of foul trouble?
Carolina's four stars are playing at an unbelievable level right now and I worry for Kansas. Love, R.J. Davis, Brady Manek, and Bacot are capable of putting up 85 points on their own. The Jayhawks have plenty of weapons, but they will need to be firing on all cylinders come Monday night. Self will have something up his sleeve defensively, and I think Kansas will cut down the nets.
Borzello prediction: Kansas 83.
The best plays from the Jayhawks season can be found here.
Gasaway says that Kansas wins because it hasVillanova. Four years ago, the Cats beat the Jayhawks in a national semifinal to acquire that mystique. The wheel has turned. The Jayhawks have played three quarters of very nearly ideal basketball. The Big East regular-season champion was eliminated by Kansas before that. When the lights are out, the Jayhawks win, and when they are not, they lose. In the tournament, KU has held its opponents to 38% shooting inside the arcs. This is a tough group, but I would like to record one more note for future reference. Three of UNC's five wins looked to be in jeopardy, but the Tar Heels are still here. The Jayhawks will have to bring their A-game if they want to succeed.
The Gasaway score prediction was Kansas 81, North Carolina 78.
Part of me thinks the game is over. When North Carolina upset Duke, where were the Jayhawks? They probably ate pizza with their feet up and took treatment at the hotel.
Tar Heels are young guys who specialize in being resilient. They have the ability to rise up to the enormous challenge of beating Coach K for the second time in a month and then let down once the deed is done.
If there was one more day of rest and recovery, one more day of distance from the late Superdome finish, I would feel better about Carolina's chances. That day is not a reality. Last year, we saw a similar impact when the late overtime thriller against UCLA and the opening minutes of the game against the Bears had an impact.
The better team that night was the Bears. Even though the Tar Heels try to distract the inevitable, Kansas will be the better team.
The piece of immortality was won by North Carolina. The Jayhawks will get theirs.
The score prediction was Kansas 84, North Carolina 72.
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