The Kansas Jayhawks are college basketball’s national champions, and they made a historic comeback to make it happen.
1-seed Kansas erased a 16-point deficit (15 points at halftime) to hold off 8-seed North Carolina 72-69 in the 2022 NCAA Tournament’s national title game on Monday in New Orleans. It’s the largest comeback win in National Championship history.
The Jayhawks outscored the Tar Heels 47-29 in the second half. Kansas got a team effort in the scoring department, with nobody scoring more than 15 points, but five players scoring at least 12 points (North Carolina had five players with at least 11 points and nobody with more than 15).
Defensively, Kansas held North Carolina to 31.5% from the field, including 5-of-24 shooting from Caleb Love (who scored 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting vs Duke in the Final Four).
It’s the fourth national title in Kansas men’s basketball history, and it’s the first one since 2008 (which also featured Bill Self as head coach).
Here’s how the sports world is reacting to the Jayhawks’ championship victory:
Chuck guaranteed Kansas to win and let @TheJetOnTNT hear it
@MarchMadnessMBB pic.twitter.com/TD3Ppx9XxF — NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 5, 2022
https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/1511197214919598081
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.