The Tar Heels lost a national championship because they lost their 16-point lead in the second half. (0:56) The police motorcycles roared their engines in the loading area outside the Superdome. The front seats of the North Carolina men's basketball team bus were illuminated by the flashing lights. The UNC star big man sat in the first seat behind the bus driver, wearing a boot on his ankle. The UNC coach rubbed his forehead and chewed on his gum in disbelief. The biggest blown lead in tournament final history happened in the NCAA championship game, when UNC lost to Kansas 72-69. Four different Tar Heels were sick on a night that the team essentially played six players. The collective toll of injuries dragged the UNC players down in the second half, preventing them from completing a historic run for the school's seventh national title. Part snakebit, part physically overmatched and part outplayed by a better team, UNC's first half of optimism disappeared in a strange second half that will haunt the fan base. In the course of the game, star forward Brady Manek took a WWE-level elbow to the head, star guard Caleb Love twisted his ankle while working away from the ball, and star forward Puff Johnson vomited on the floor. It is likely to be remembered as the first on-floor vomit in NCAA championship history. A player who battled pain all night was the most important injury. Bacot fell to the floor in the final minute of the game. With North Carolina trailing 70-69 and 50 seconds remaining, Bacot attempted a spin move in the lane, but his injured right ankle gave out and he fell to the floor. The conspiracy theories were the reason for it. Armando Bacot injured his ankle on a loose floorboard. A LOOSE FLOORBOARD AT THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. pic.twitter.com/Ion0BCqly6
Bacot tried to help UNC out on defense by getting up and hopping the length of the court on one leg. If there was a single image that summed up UNC's agony Monday night, it was their big man sticking himself down the floor to try and play defense. The officials stopped the play and he left.
Bacot said he thought he got the angle he wanted. I thought it would be easy. I rolled my ankle.
I really struggled. I could not put any weight on my right leg. I don't know, I probably knew I was done at that point.
Bacot rolled his ankle in the final minute against Kansas and had to leave the game.
The Heels had a chance to tie the game in the final few seconds after Harris stepped out of bounds. The final play of the game was undone by a UNC player falling over.
Manek was going to get a 3-pointer on the opposite side, but R.J. Davis was going to screen and free him. Manek's right ankle appeared to get caught at an awkward angle as he tried to sprint across the lane to open the lane.
North Carolina&s game-tying attempt was off the mark as Kansas won its fourth national title.
He looked like he was going to throw it to the opposite corner. The play was thrown off. I believe he would have been open.
The first option was to shoot the 3. We had a screen on the back side that was going to be set by a person named Justin. Brady tripped and that messed up the play.
The play ended in a Love step-back 3-pointer guarded by Christian Braun. The shot came up short, and Kansas celebrated.
After leading by 15 at halftime and by 16 in the first half, UNC was unable to hold off Kansas in the second half. There was a flurry of turnovers, a flurry of shot-making, and brawn undid UNC.
He said that he got hit in the stomach and that his on-court spit-up came.
Johnson's 11 points in 18 minutes set the stage for him to emerge as an obscure title-game hero, at least until he missed a pull-up 3-pointer with six seconds left that was a candidate for worst UNC shot attempt of the night.
The Jayhawks win the NCAA men's national championship in 2022, overcoming a 16-point deficit to beat the Tar Heels.
Love said he rolled his ankle twice on the second-half play, but there was no contact or cut. Love was 5-for-24, including 4-for-18 in the second half, and 1-for-8 from 3-point range.
The last indelible image in the stadium was Bacot needing help walking down the stairs that lead to the postgame podium, with Davis directing UNC staff to help him descend from the stage area.
Bacot said that the goal was to just hang up a banner. We wanted to win. I would not allow anything to stop us from getting to that point. It didn't go as we wanted.
There was some solace in the fact that they spent six weeks altering the trajectory of the program in Davis.
UNC went on a 16-0 run to build a big lead over Kansas.
UNC nearly became the first 8 seed to win the title since 1985 when it beat Duke in the semifinals. Instead, UNC settles for its record 21st Final Four, ending the career of Mike Krzyzewski and a surge of optimism to accompany Davis' tenure going forward.
The authenticity that Hubert brings to it every day has been seen by a lot of people. A lot more people are doing it.
Davis mentioned this weekend that he watched the 1991 Final Four loss to Kansas for nearly two decades, an exercise in torture in which he hoped the ending from his playing days would somehow change.
There is a new entry in the horror film section of the UNC basketball historic film catalog. The run to the final will be remembered for its twists and turns.
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