As he sat just a few rows behind the Kansas bench at the Superdome on Monday night, Mario Chalmers tried not to blush.
The program he had led to the 2008 basketball national championship was behind at the half. The hero of that team who hit a 3-pointer to send the game to overtime in a win against Memphis hoped the Jayhawks would remember what was still possible.
The same thing Bill Self told us in 2008 was to keep believing. I knew they would be able to pull it out.
There is a thin line between joy and agony. After a 2012 loss to Kentucky in the title game, and a loss to Villanova in the Final Four, Self knows what it's like to win a national title. He challenged his players in the locker room after his first national title team was down in the second half.
The greatest deficit a winning team has overcome in the national championship game in NCAA history was the 16-point deficit that the Jayhawks overcame. They all said 15.
His players looked around the locker room at one another and began to yell, "We're coming back!" We are coming back!
The comeback that saved a season was born in that moment. There was more to the game than the flying bodies and athletes who were attacking a North Carolina team that had already beaten three other teams.
48 hours before the game, the Jayhawks knew how much energy North Carolina had generated against Duke. The Tar Heels seemed unconquerable in the first half, but the Jayhawks were waiting for the fatigue to arrive.
The Jayhawks went inside to the post and got a couple of them in foul trouble by guarding the 3-point line. They were worn out from the game the other day. The last round was all we needed.
Three Kansas players come through with big buckets.
The Kansas star was hounded by Leaky Black in the first half, but Ochai Agbaji was more aggressive in the second half. Black tried to avoid his fourth foul, but North Carolina was frustrated by his spurts off screens, which forced them to play more cautiously. The Tar Heels were stunned by the way the game had turned, as Kansas scored 31 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half and also had a 20-8 advantage in the paint. Black went to the bench with his fourth foul five minutes after the break.
The defensive pressure was critical. The Heels made five 3-pointers. North Carolina missed all seven of its 3-pointers in the second half and finished 2-for-12 from beyond the arc.
The second-half efforts of Jalen Wilson (11 points), David McCormack (nine points), Christian Braun (10 points), Remy Martin (11 points) and Agbaji (four points) put a charge into a Kansas team that outscored North Carolina 47-29 after halftime. One of the most exciting teams of the past month looked ordinary because of the defensive discipline of the Jayhawks.
Self said that it was a "Rocky" movie. You just keep fighting, even though you were almost taken out.
Six months ago, Self was unsure if he had a team that could make this run. He was aware of the buzz about his 2021-22 squad, which had returned Agbaji, McCormack and Braun and also added Martin, an All-Pac-12 star at Arizona State, but he was not ready to compare it to his first and only national title team.
Sean believes that the moment Ochai Agbaji and Kansas turned the corner was when Leaky Black left.
The 2008 team played better when faced with adversity, Self said at the Big 12 media day. The harder it was, the more they liked it.
With 3 minutes, 6 seconds to play and the score tied on the biggest stage in college basketball, Martin hit a 3-pointer from the corner and McCormack sank a pair of shots to keep Kansas ahead. The Jayhawks did not shrink.
Self was scrambling on the sideline as North Carolina got another possession in the final seconds of a 3-point game after a review showed that Kansas guard Dajuan Harris Jr. had stepped out of bounds.
Self was drawing up something and he was so intense that his lips were getting dry. We got it, Coach.
With his second national title, Self is now positioned to succeed Mike Krzyzewski as the face of college basketball. The era of name, image and likeness deals has added more layers to program building. As the sport's new champion and the leader of a team that is still awaiting the outcome of a major infractions case that includes allegations of five Level I violations, Self has been cast as a villain by some and an easy target of a disorganized system.
North Carolina&s game-tying attempt was off the mark as Kansas won its fourth national title.
Five years ago, the FBI said it had college basketball's playbook, but it failed to yield the sweeping indictments many had anticipated. The sport is moving forward. The judicial process has failed to leave a meaningful mark thus far, even though Self and Kansas might incur penalties in the months ahead.
The awkwardness of the moment was illustrated when Mark Emmert, the leader of the NCAA that is coming for Kansas and other programs, handed the championship trophy to the head of the men's basketball selection committee.
Self's joy was still there on Monday. He had talked to his father a few months ago and wished he had been there for the run. Jay Wright and Rick Pitino are the only active coaches with multiple national titles.
Self said before he climbed a ladder to cut a piece of the net that it felt better than he thought.
As the confetti fell and the players cheered, the scene looked familiar to him, and he smiled as he watched the celebration from the crowd.
Fourteen years ago, the Kansas team that had mounted the greatest comeback in national title game history, had played with passion and had tapped into it. He was proud.
Most teams would give up in a moment like that.
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