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One shining moment 2022 march madness1/22/2024 Note the smile on David McCormack’s face. The Jayhawks then returned to the floor with positive vibes. So we can do this, because that’s the way it was in ’08.” “And they all said being down nine with two minutes left. I did tell them before the half was over which would be harder, being down nine with two minutes to go or being down 15 with 20?” he said. That was 2008, when those Jayhawks rushed past Memphis and won the championship in overtime. Self reached back to the past, to the shining moment of his coaching life - until Monday - for an example to give his team. “With the group of guys as experienced as this and been around and know each other so well,” Mitch Lightfoot said, “it’s kind of hard to see us get rattled.” “I think he was looking down pretty ticked at us.”īut the players weren’t overly concerned. We were kind of sped up by the moment.” Self thought of his father once more. All seemed well.īut what to do when North Carolina took a 40-25 lead into halftime and in Agbaji’s words, “We weren’t playing our game. “I don’t think it’s me but I made a conscious effort this time not to let anything show,” he said of his outward calm. He had seen other Kansas teams not react well in the bright lights. If only he could have them right for New Orleans. They were down six at halftime to Miami in the Elite Eight and positively crushed the Hurricanes 47-15 in the second half. They were down 17 at Kansas State the week his father died and came back to win. “No headaches, no issues, no selfishness, no hidden agendas, no side streets.”Īnd the Jayhawks seemed especially dangerous when pushed. “I told my people close to me I don’t think I’ve ever felt this much joy coaching a team as I have this team,” Self said. But this team, laden with veterans who have invested much of their young lives in Kansas basketball, had the feel of something special. 1, but COVID wiped out that tournament and that chance. The second might have come in 2020 when the Jayhawks were No. “Nobody’s ever put pressure on me that we’ve got to win another one, but I think I put pressure on myself knowing that this place deserves more than what we’ve won.” “When they’re the all-time winningest program, and when the inventor of the game (James Naismith) was your first coach, and when the likes of Adolph Rupp comes from Kansas and Dean Smith comes from Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain comes from Kansas, the expectations are such where being good is OK, but it’s not enough. But the one title from 2008 was starting to look a tad lonely. Self has had a terrific run at Kansas, already good enough for the Hall of Fame. The father would be proud not only of how the championship was finally secured, but what it means to the career of his son. “The biggest thing was, of all the ways you could win a game, this one would make him most proud.”īRAGGING RIGHTS: Teams with the most national championships It’s the one time he didn’t talk back,” Self said. When we were down six then 10 then 15, I talked to him then. was in the Caesars Superdome Monday night. Self lost his father in January, but one thing was clear: Bill Self Sr. Ochai Agbaji named Most Outstanding Player after winning 2022 NCAA tournament championshipĪnd Kansas won a game that went straight to the heart of its coach. “I was just trying to drive to the basket and I just kind of unconsciously tried to go off my right foot. I thought it would have been an easy basket,” he would say later. “I thought I really got the angle I wanted. In his 38th minute of a 15 point, 15 rebound double-double Monday night, with North Carolina down one with 50 seconds left and desperately needing a play, Bacot tried to make one in the lane. Armando Bacot had said on Sunday they would have to cut off his right leg to keep him from answering the bell against Kansas, never mind the ankle he sprained against Duke. Kansas won a game where the biggest turnover of the night - maybe the season - came because a Tar Heel was courageously playing through the pain of an injured ankle. Over a 10-minute span in the second half, Kansas outscored North Carolina by 21.ĪNOTHER VIEW: Looking back at Kansas' title win Over a 16-minute span in the first half, North Carolina outscored Kansas by 23 points. Kansas won a game that went thisaway and then thataway. “When we saw our own blood, we didn’t panic.” “I think the way we won made it even more special,” Self said. No team had ever done that before, not in 82 NCAA tournaments. Kansas won a game and a championship 72-69 Monday night, even though the Jayhawks trailed by 16 points. Now there is a new hard-luck moment to live in NCAA tournament lore one of those whims of fate that is so ironic, it is as if the gods of the game themselves played a hand. Now there is a new championship game to cherish for its volatility, its twists and its turns, where nothing was sure until the last second was gone and the confetti poured down. Kansas wins its second national title under Bill Self
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