AP Photo/David J. Phillip
While it will likely take plenty of time for the North Carolina Tar Heels to move past Monday’s stunning 72-69 loss to the Kansas Jayhawks in the 2022 NCAA men’s basketball tournament championship game, head coach Hubert Davis was proud of his team’s efforts.
“I can’t be more proud of the group that I just coached this year,” he said in a postgame interview with TBS. “I told them that I desperately wanted them to have experiences and stories and testimonies of their own, and along the ride, they added more stories and testimonies and memories for me as a coach. For that, I’m thankful.”
Still, this game will surely sting for some time.
After all, the Tar Heels appeared to be in full control when they built a 16-point lead at one point and were up 15 at intermission. It seemed as if the second half would be a formality with Armando Bacot dominating inside, Brady Manek hitting clutch three-pointers and their defense cutting off Kansas’ driving lanes and outside looks.
And then the second half started.
The Jayhawks dialed up the pressure and got out in transition whenever they could. North Carolina finished with 13 turnovers, and guards Caleb Love and R.J. Davis finished a combined 10-of-41 from the field.
Remy Martin, Jalen Wilson and Christian Braun made several critical shots as Kansas came storming back, and David McCormack put the finishing touches on the comeback with back-to-back baskets in crunch time.
“In the second half, their pressure just bothered us,” Davis said. “They just stepped it up on both ends of the floor. We couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end, and their persistence to get to the paint, whether it was through penetration or post, put our guys in foul trouble. We’re not that deep, and they just wore us down.”
It was still quite the Big Dance for the Tar Heels.
They flirted with the bubble for much of their inconsistent season but found a rhythm in the tournament with blowout wins over Marquette and Saint Peter’s to go with close victories over presumed contenders in Baylor, UCLA and Duke.
That Final Four victory over the Blue Devils will surely stand out when North Carolina looks back on the season, considering it was the first time the two rivals met in the NCAA men’s tournament and ended legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career.
If anything, it serves as a silver lining to Monday’s collapse.
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