NEW ORLEANS — Kansas' men's basketball team concocted a comeback for the ages in Monday's national championship game at the Caesars Superdome.
The Jayhawks, who trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half, rallied to claim a 72-69 victory over North Carolina.
KU pulled off the largest comeback in a win in title-game history. Loyola Chicago trailed Cincinnati by 15 points in a 60-58 title win in overtime in 1963. KU on Monday also had the biggest comeback from a halftime deficit in title-game history.
Kentucky trailed Utah by 10 at the break in the Wildcats' 78-69 win in 1998.
"I think we're probably all a little overwhelmed and spent," KU coach Bill Self said. "I don't know that I've ever had a team flip the script like we have probably in the NCAA Tournament, whether it be Miami in the Elite Eight or whether it be this game."
In their Elite Eight victory and again in Monday night's championship game, the Jayhawks struggled in the first half only to excel in the second. KU trailed Miami by six points at halftime, ultimately beating the Hurricanes by 26 points in the regional final.
"It would be special to win regardless," Self said. "But to win when your team had to fight, and come back the way they did and show that much grit, makes this one off the charts. I thought this would be good. And this is a heck of a lot better than I thought it would be."
The Jayhawks didn't panic at halftime on Monday, down 40-25.
In fact, power forward David McCormack actually was smiling in the locker room at the break.
"He was looking at me, and I was like, 'Why are you smiling, dude? We're down 15,' " said KU guard Christian Braun, who scored 12 points with 12 rebounds. "He was telling me, 'Keep your head up, keep going, we'll be all right.' I was like, 'Man, I don't know if I've ever been here before. Down 15 in a national championship game.' I've definitely never been there."
Braun praised McCormack for his play down the stretch, including two big buckets in the final minute and a half.
"We're just proud of him and he kept us going," Braun said, "and then obviously hit a really big shot."
Asked about his halftime demeanor, McCormack, who finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds plus a block and a steal, said: "I was in the locker room telling the guys, 'Just believe in yourself, have fun with it. It's our last game regardless. Do what you need to do because that's how we got here in the first place. Don't doubt yourself.'
"And we came out in the second half. Juan (teammate Dajuan Harris) dictated the game on defense. Everybody else just followed suit. He's a floor general. He can lock up anybody on the court. And he just came out with great energy, and we followed the same way."
Harris' defense was roundly cited by teammates as initiating KU's comeback in the final half.
"It was Dajuan. He sparked it in the second half. Coach said it in the locker room," senior Ochai Agbaji said. "Just his defensive pressure rubbed off on everyone else. That's where we got that momentum from on the defensive end and everything else fell in place on the offense."
Asked about his defense, Harris said: "I just wanted to go. I didn't want to lose. When I came to college, I came to college with them (gesturing to the teammates sitting next to him at the podium). I just wanted to give it my all for them. That's all it was."
The Jayhawks trailed in many games this season.
"I would say it kind of just took us back to when we were at K-State," said Agbaji. The Jayhawks trailed the Wildcats by 16 points in the first half of a 78-75 KU win in Manhattan, Kan.
"The message was obviously different," Agbaji continued. "Coach, he obviously challenged us and he was amped up in there (locker room Monday). 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."
Senior forward Mitch Lightfoot, who had two points and a rebound in seven minutes, said: "It's kind of hard to see us get rattled. And I think we bounced back at halftime. Coach had a great message for us, and he challenged us to be better and to have more pride. And we did that."
What exactly was Self's message at halftime?
"There wasn't much inspiration," the coach said. "I did tell them before the half was over, I said, 'Which would be harder, being down nine with two minutes left or being down 15 with 20?' And they all said being down nine with two minutes left."
He reminded his players the 2008 national champion Jayhawks had trailed Memphis by nine points in the title game with just over two minutes to play. And KU won in overtime.
"So we can do this," Self recalled telling them, "because that's the way it was in '08. We got three or four stops in a row to start the half. And 15 went to nine like that (snaps fingers), and it was anybody's game. It was special how Juan triggered that to start the second half."
