Jayhawks show the world a different team

SAN ANTONIO

Kansas’ basketball players weren’t joking the other day when they confirmed, in so many words, that they were choking on their pedigree against 10th-seeded Davidson last week in their NCAA tournament regional semifinal.

Freed at this all-No. 1 Final Four of the onerous, no-win chore of playing and taking out an alleged easy mark, the Jayhawks promised to show the world a different team than the one that narrowly avoided falling to the curse of Stephen Curry.

Turns out their word was good.

Turns out everything about Kansas basketball Saturday night was, too.

I’m not sure when the last time 40-12 appeared on the scoreboard of a North Carolina basketball game, with the dozen belonging to the Chapel Hill boys instead of High Point or somebody.

But that was the surreal path the Tar Heels charted at the Alamodome, thanks to Kansas’ unrelenting opening burst. North Carolina was absolutely buried early, looking up from 28 points down.

It swatted back at the bullying foe in the middle. Desperately swarmed to within four points toward the end, rocking the Jayhawks with the flurries of Wayne Ellington and Danny Green.

Then, ultimately, gassed and grasping, the Tar Heels left losers by an 84-66 count, the first Roy Williams Memorial grudge match run away with by the Jayhawks in a surprising way.

“We played great early, as good as we can play,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “We were fortunate they missed some shots, but we really guarded them.

“Then we went brain-dead from about the three-minute mark of the first half to about the 10-minute mark of the second half. And then we finished so strong late.”

So much was stunning. The early deficit, or lead, depending upon your favorite shade of blue. The tremendous performance by Jayhawk guard Brandon Rush, whose 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting was the second-best of his career.

The nine blocked shots Kansas sent back toward UNC shooters. The fact that North Carolina never enjoyed a lead. Never once felt the familiar swell of confidence it nurtures and expects.

Not that it makes much difference, but this one goes dubiously into the thick UNC record book as among the most lopsided Tar Heel NCAA losses in the last 20 years.

Texas Tech dismissed North Carolina from the tournament in 1996 by 19 in the second round in Richmond. Arkansas trumped the Heels by 23 in 1990 in the regional semifinals in Dallas. This trip to Texas was hardly kinder.

“This bunch did some great, great things,” said Williams, whose team finished 36-3. “But they had bigger dreams than this. … It’s a big-time loss and a big-time bitter feeling for us.”

Ah, but not for Kansas, nor for this tournament.

Its victory sets up a compelling championship game Monday night that both the Jayhawks and Memphis, which thrashed UCLA in Saturday’s opener, charge into on the strength of impressive effort, rich talent and the momentum that comes from just four losses between them in 78 games.

Not a ratings panacea for CBS, I’m sure, but too bad. Great college basketball has its own charms Memphis and Kansas can get it done.

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com