2022 NCAA Basketball Tournament Game: UNC vs Kansas Set for National Title as March Madness concludes

She gave us an epic Saturday night in the Final Four, an all-time National Championship match with the top seed kansas Face seed number 8 North Carolina In the final match of the NCAA 2022 Championship on Monday evening.

KS, the only No. 1 seed to advance to the Elite Eight, took care of the business in a win over the wires against the No. 2 seed Villanova In the first game on Saturday evening. The Wildcats had several runs on the Kansas lead, but a combination of Ochai Agbaji, David McCormack and Christian Braun gave an answer every run at Villanova, leaving no doubt in the final minutes of the game. Both coaches emptied the seats and Kansas turned its attention to its first National Championship appearance since facing Kentucky at the same time. New Orleans Setup in 2012.

The first meeting of its kind in North Carolina and duke The NCAA Championship brought out so much hype that you can blame the excitement for poor shooting by both teams early in the game. But after about 10 minutes it was back and forth, and the rubber match between the Tobacco Road rivals offered just as much as anyone could have hoped. 18 lead changes and 12 draws each intensity brought the best college basketball competition to the biggest stage in the game, but it was Caleb Love’s playoff that propelled the Tar Heels to the national championship game.

Kansas and North Carolina have met several times before in the Final Four, including the 1957 National Championship Game, the 1991 National Semifinal, the 1993 National Semifinal, and the 2008 National Semifinal. Here’s how each side stacked against each other on Monday night. :

(1) Kansas Jayhawks

Regional Champion in the Midwest

• register: 33-6
• Fourth appearance in the final: 16 (1940, 1952, 1953, 1957, 1971, 1974, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1993, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2012, 2018, 2022)
• NCAA titles: 3 (1952, 1988, 2008)
• NCAA Championship Track: First round – fellow countryman. number 16 south texas 83-56; Second round – fellow countryman. number 9 Creton 79-72; sweet 16 – dev. No. 4 Providence 66-61; Elite Eight – Countryman. number 10 Miami 76-50; Dave. No. 2 Villanova 81-65.
• Fitness Trainer: Bill Self made his fourth Final Four appearance as a coach, all coming up with the Jayhawks. He won everything on his first visit in 2008, taking second place Kentucky in 2012 and was eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual champion Villanova in 2018. With 16 major of 12 regular season titles over his 19 years with the program, Self has established a model of regular season consistency unparalleled across the sport.
• best player: Ochai Agbaji. The 12 best players of the year do a little bit of everything for this team. He can come out as one of the best three-point shooters on the team or lead the lane to play on the edge. In defense, he can be an efficient defender on the ball, a defensive rebellious, or spring into the quick break to make a play in the open ground when KS wants to push the tempo.
• strength point: This is an experienced team that plays with great confidence, cutting through four seniors, junior and two sophomores in their seven-man rotation. Two of these greats have the potential to be the best players on the planet, but we haven’t seen them play the title role at the same time. Agbaji was the Big 12’s top scorer, 12th player of the year and an all-American player, but the tournament saw the emergence of the transfer guard. Remy Martin, who was named Midwest Player of the Year despite coming off the bench as the sixth man and missing most of February through injury. Both players are not just capable scorers but essential pieces in the Kansas periphery defense, which will be an important factor for success in Final Four.
• Weak points: After a great showing in the Big 12, the Jayhawks were a bit sweaty at Big Dance. The single-digit win over Creighton in the second round and Providence in the Sweet 16 brought in some tense moments, but it did allow Miami to jump to a 35-29 lead in the first half that really highlighted consistency concerns. Of course, this veteran Kansas team responded by beating the Hurricanes 47-15 within the last 20 minutes. But if you’re looking for weaknesses in this seasoned and experienced team, we haven’t yet seen a full 40 minutes of his best basketball of the tournament.
• key number: . Every other team in Final Four has at least one five-star prospect on the list, and the Jayhawks have none. Often self and experts everywhere began the analysis with some version of the phrase “This team may not be talented in KS, but…” before praising the Jayhawks’ 32 wins. It’s odd for a program that has signed so many potential five-star players and produced dozens of NBA players to be one of the least talented teams in Final Four, but the composition of this squad — which, for the record, has 10 former players, has four-star odds. Be just what they need to get back into the Final Four and possibly win another National Championship.
• prospects: Losing the 2020 NCAA Championship Isn’t a Primary Motivation for Kansas, But It Wasn’t Lost to Anyone About Self and the Jayhawks He had the best team in the country At the time the tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Agbagi, David McCormack And the Christian Brown They were all part of this team and in this tournament they witnessed the arc broken at almost every turn.

(8) North Carolina Tar Heels

Eastern Regional Champion

• register: 29-9
• Fourth appearance in the final20: (1946, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2017)
• NCAA titles: 6 (1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2017)
• NCAA Championship Track: First round – Def. number 9 market 95-63; Second round – Def. No. 1 Baylor 93-86 (overtime); sweet 16 – dev. No. 4 University of California 73-66; Elite Eight – Countryman. No. 15 St. Peter 69-49; Dave. No. 2 Duke 81-77
• Fitness TrainerHubert Davis is the first coach since Bill Guthridge (in North Carolina in 1998) to lead his team to the fourth Final in his first year. Roy Williams’ successor has had a rough start to the season, starting at 12-6 overall without a notable out-of-conference win and 4-3 in ACC play, but Tar Heels’ strong near-season has moved this team out of a bubble, on the field and now all the way to the four Last.
• best player: There was a style shift in the North Carolina lineups with the move from Roy Williams to Hubert Davis, but he kept at least one big, traditional one that could run the floor with Armando Bacot. It would be a bad decision not to let one of the nation’s top bouncers see as much time on the ground as possible, but it’s interesting to watch how Bacot has also embraced recent roles in attack. He’ll start in the ocean and float down the fairway, giving him the option of driving to the basket or out to one of North Carolina’s capable 3-point options if the defense collapses. The scorer, the kicker and the facilitator are all in Bacot’s wheelhouse, which is why he’s the best player on the planet.
• strength pointNorth Carolina has four players capable of scoring more than 20 points on any given night, and this diversity of scoring options makes them a dangerous team to contend with in terms of game planning. In this tournament alone we have seen guards Caleb Love And the RJ Davis Each score 30 points, Brady Manic He scored 26 or more twice and Bacot had a double in every post-season game (ACC Championship and NCAA Tournament) the Tar Heels played this year.
• Weak points: The lack of competitive depth was all too evident during the near 30-4 round by Baylor in the second half which would ultimately be an additional win for the tar heels in the second round. After Manek was sent off midway through the second half and Loew’s misguided problem was found in front of him before the end of regulation, Depths Tar Heels and head-to-head problems against elite teams after five starts were fully visible. Much has been said of Iron Five who carry a significant amount of playtime weight and played every minute of the second half in the win over Duke, but the flip side of Iron Five is a dip in experience and performance that should take one of these five out of the game.
• key number: 39.1%. That’s the 3-point percentage of North Carolina’s win over the Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It’s just a few marks above the Tar Heels’ respectable season average of 36.1% but in that increase you may find what North Carolina needs to beat Duke again Saturday night in the Final Four. While North Carolina improved defensively in March, the best course of action would not be to rely exclusively on defensive stopping points to win against the high-powered Blue Devils. A timely defensive pause, sure. But North Carolina has to hit three times to keep up with the scoreboard and give themselves a chance to win late.
• prospects: according to BartTorvik.com, where you can not only check season-adjusted efficiency numbers but also sort the dataset by date, North Carolina has been the number one team in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency since March 1. To criticism for the small sample size, but it backs up what our eyes have been telling us as well. North Carolina might not be the all-time top team in the country right now, but it’s been playing as well as the best teams in the country since the calendar shifted from February to March. Tar Heel is seeded #8 in the tournament but the quality of play represents a team that doesn’t score as the #29 to #32 team in the field of 68. However, the task of winning the next game is the biggest at hand.