With the Tar Heels poised to add to Self’s career of heartache, he wipes away any argument that he will go down as one of college basketball’s greatest coaches.
AP Basketball Writer
“Nobody’s ever put pressure on me that we’ve got to win another one,” he added, “but I think I put pressure on myself knowing that this place deserves more than what we have won.” “Coach, he obviously challenged us and was amped,” said the Jayhawks’ Ochai Agbaji, “but it was a matter of us playing our game and executing in the second half and taking away what they were getting at in the first half.”
At halftime, Self referenced the Jayhawks’ 2008 national championship comeback with his team, asking if they’d rather be down by nine with two minutes left –as they were that night – or down by 15 with 20 minutes still to play.The trio of Braun, McCormack and Wilson went to work to start the second half, wiping out North Carolina’s hard-earned lead and finally pulling even when Agbaji – the Final Four MVP – converted a three-point play with 10:53 to go.
The comeback broke the record for the largest halftime deficit overcome in a championship game, set by Kentucky in 1998, when the Wildcats rallied from down by 10 to beat Utah. It also broke the record for any Final Four halftime comeback of 11, set by Duke’s rally past Maryland in 2001 and Temple, when it beat Kansas State in the 1958 third-place game.
“We came this far and this was a huge goal for us was to just hang up a banner,” Bacot said. “And we just really wanted to win. I really wouldn’t let anything stop us from getting to that point.”
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