Reliving Last Night's National Title Game: A Full Recap

Alright, deep breath. The season is officially over and we're onto transfer portal, NBA Draft, who is coming back, etc season. But I wanted to take a moment and relive last night's title game. It deserves it. 

We got started with a national anthem that I want played from here on out. Make this version the real version. Need it at the World Cup. 

Kansas got off to a quick start, 7-0. It looked like it was about to be a UNC let down after ending Coach K's career. Howevah, UNC quickly figured it out. 

Decent flow early in terms of lack of foul calls and up and down play. You know, the way games should be. None of these whistles early on. Let the players decide the game. So with it tied up at the under-8 we got hit with an all-time Hubert Davis interview. 

Then Brady Manek caught fire. Manek got his ass kicked early and I mean that quite literally. He caught a brutal accidental elbow from David McCormack after a made jumper and then another one during play. Next thing you know he had three threes in the first half and UNC started to pull away. 

Manek's entire March run was ridiculous. Dude couldn't miss, got ejected on a questionable flagrant call against Baylor and then dealt with this. The first half was ALL UNC

However, we saw what kept happening with these teams. We saw UNC blow some leads and hold on during the Tournament. We saw Kansas come back after a slow first half - most notably against Miami. They came out fast with a quick run. 

I loved that first possession call of the lob to McCormack just to get some juice. It worked obviously. But down 15 you look for any sort of energy early. It's very cliche but the first 4 minutes of the 2nd half is so important there. If you cut it to single digits you have life. If you go down 20 you're dead. Simple. Speaking of energy, Christian Braun was awesome. He also delivered an A+ bitch call. 

You had Kansas push the lead to 6, UNC immediately responded thanks to Puff Johnson. This is the same Puff Johnson who was the only sub used by Hubert Davis until the very last play of the game. The same Puff Johnson who scored double digits just for the 3rd time in the year. 

He quite literally left it on the court. Puke style. 

Speaking of bench players, you had Remy Martin coming alive for Kansas at the same time. You had bad Remy in the first half. Sure, he banked a three in but took some bad shots and just didn't look right out there. But then he hit some major daggers in the second and Self even called on him for defense. 

Then with under 2 minutes to go we had it all. A Manek put back. 

McCormack hit a short jumper to give Kansas the lead with 1:21 to go. Then with :51 to go it happened. Armando Bacot rolled his ankle with the floor giving in and lost the ball on a drive that would have given UNC the lead. 

Kansas decides to not attack 5-on-4, wasting some time before the refs whistled the play dead. After the timeout UNC had to go small with Manek at the 5 and Self went right to McCormack in the post. It worked. 

Then you had mayhem on the other side of the floor. Love pulling up from DEEP and missing, an offensive rebound and Puff Johnson rushing a three. I don't know if he thought he was out of time or what, but it had no real shot of going in. Kansas one-upped it by stepping out of bounds on the inbound giving UNC hope. 

Why are you running that close to the sideline is beyond me. But then we had the debate. Would Bill Self foul up 3 and no Bacot on the floor. He opted not to and Braun played perfect defense here. 

Manek slips on the same spot Bacot fell, but this is about Braun. He doesn't bite on the little ball fake. Stays on his feet. All the fundamental type stuff. Foul up 3 or not didn't matter because Kansas won. Braun played it perfectly. All title games should be close with crazy runs. Give me that every year.