It would be an exaggeration to say that they were mirror images. “Psycho T,” Tyler Hansbrough, is an impossible-to-duplicate original. Yet there were similarities aplenty between Kansas and North Carolina.
Both were long, athletic and glutted with guards who were garishly gifted. Both liked to push, to pressure and to play out their games at a speed that approached the sound barrier. Both worked inside-out and could score from either the block or the perimeter.
If the setting for Kansas’ ultimate 84-66 victory was the Alamodome, if the occasion wasn’t a national semifinal, if the names on their jerseys weren’t different, you would have sworn you had stumbled into the Dean Dome or Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday night and come across an intrasquad scrimmage.
“They don’t really remind us of a team we played. They remind us of ourselves,” Tar Heels guard Ty Lawson said as he awaited their showdown. “But for a team to try to run us, it’s good for us.”
Backcourt mate Wayne Ellington agreed.
“When teams feel like they can run with us, we feel great about it,” he quickly added from the seat next to Lawson. “We feel like we’re the best running team in the country. For a team to come out and run with us, you know, somebody’s going to give in and we’re pretty sure it’s not going to be us.”
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That is how confident the Tar Heels were entering this game, which showed clearly they had forgotten this adage that is as old as philosophy itself. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it. Those were the words again proven true Saturday as the Jayhawks exploded early and then held on for the triumph that moved them into Monday’s championship game with Memphis.
Kansas’ Brandon Rush led all scorers with 25 points while Ellington led Carolina with 18.
This was a production anticipated by none, but at the start it was Kansas that ran with the most alacrity and, of equal importance, played defense with far more vigor. Earlier, when questioned about the wisdom of keeping up with the Tar Heels, Jayhawks coach Bill Self expressed no fear that his team could not do that.
But with that answer, which he gave often, he always added a rider that declared his defense also must do its part and keep Carolina from operating at cruise control and slow it to a half-court team.
Few thought the Jayhawks could manage that. Most thought they simply were getting themselves into a fiddling contest with the devil. But in the first half they did not surrender a fast-break basket until more than 15 minutes were gone and themselves unleashed a flurry of those breaks that left the Tar Heels reeling.
The force of their effort simply grew in power, their lead building from five with 6 minutes 30 seconds gone to 11 with eight minutes to a staggering 28 with 13:15 gone. At this point they were 15 of 22 overall (69.6 percent) and 4 of 5 on their three-pointers (80 percent) with 16 rebounds. Carolina, which would go through a nine-minute stretch without a field goal, was 4 of 17 (23.5 percent) overall and 0-of-4 on its threes with a mere five rebounds.
Only now would the Jayhawks’ temperature abate and only now would Carolina begin to mount its charge. It brought it back to 17 at halftime and then, with 11 minutes remaining, it was down to four.
No one was running now. The pace already had taken its toll. But at the end the Jayhawks proved Ellington twice wrong. They did not give in. They, instead, simply secured their victory.
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