After defeating Duke in Coach K’s final game ever, North Carolina had more momentum than they have before. However they would have to face the 34-6 Kansas Jayhawks to win it all.

This postseason was a weird one for the Jayhawks as they were either blowing teams out by 20 or having close games with Creighton in the Round of 32.

“Personally, I didn’t make it to the end of the men’s NCAA final game. When I went to sleep, UNC was ahead by almost 15 points. I was very surprised this morning to see that Kansas had won the game,” stated Mrs. Torie Hartman, MV math teacher.

The game started off close but with 5:49 left in the first quarter. This is where things started to go UNC’s way.

The Tarheels scored 16 unanswered points in just over three minutes, and it looked like the Tarheels were going to be National Champions for the first time since 2017 against Gonzaga.

Going into the half the score was 40-25, and it seemed like Kansas was out of it. However, in college basketball, anything can happen.

Kansas came back from this deficit scoring 47 of their 72 points in the second half.

Kansas trailed by as much as 16 (15 at the half,) and this was the largest comeback in National Championship game history since Loyola-Chicago in 1963, when they came back from a deficit of 15.

“I just thought, ‘Keep believing,” {former Jayhawks guard Mario] Chalmers said after Kansas’ 72-69 come-from-behind win over North Carolina. “The same thing Coach [Bill] Self told us [in 2008] was to keep believing. And I knew they’d be able to pull it out in the end,” via Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com.

Tied with 7:48 left to go in the second half, the score remained 57-57, and UNC guard Puff Johnson UNC exits the game late after appearing to vomit on the court.

Ultimately, this game came down to the wire. Players like Puff Johnson were giving it their all. Soon the final moments arrived and the score was 72-69 Kansas.

UNC guard Caleb Love took inbound and attempts to tie the game with a three but ultimately misses, and the Kansas Jayhawks became National Champions after beating all the odds.

“UNC played horrible defense the whole game, they caught a break in the first half with Kansas not making their shots, but in the second half Kansas started to heat up and make high percentage shots, unlike UNC,” described diehard UNC fan Alex Kiefer ’25.

“We ended up guarding the 3-point line and going inside to the post guys and got a couple of them in foul trouble,” said Kansas assistant Kurtis Townsend. “We really tried to [speed them up]. We thought they’d be worn out from the game the other day. The last round was all we needed,” via Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com.