As a perennial choker, Roy Williams taught Kansas all about how to handle cruel, crushing disappointments.
Bill Self schooled the Jayhawks on how to dish out some pain of their own.
Kansas left its former coach in the dust Saturday night, getting 25 pts and 7 boards from Brandon Rush to defend the usual late run by UNC for an 84-66 victory in the national semifinals.
Beat down into a 28 pt hole (40-12), late in the first half, Tyler (have you seen my contact?), Ellington and the Tar Heels made a last ditch effort, getting to within 5 with 9:00 to go.
But Kansas dealt their final crushing blow, and the over-rated, over-inflated egos lost in their effort to pull off the biggest Final Four comeback ever.
"We sort of came out a little more casual than we would've liked and they hit us right between the eyes," Williams said.
Now, the Jayhawks will play Memphis, an earlier 78-63 winner over UCLA, in Monday's title game.
I was going to write a piece about how UNC has been coddled all year with their easy schedule of cupcake teams, but chose rather to not waste my energy on such an over-rated team and will instead quote a fellow blogger:
UNC was routed because it was not tested during the early rounds of the tournament (or the season for that matter). It was given an unfair advantage by the NCAA, since it played four tourney games in NC. UNC also faced inferior competition, save for Louisville, which would have defeated them if the game was played in a neutral court. I knew that UNC would be in trouble in a neutral court, because the ACC teams which beat them (UMD, Duke) or came close to do it three times (Clemson) got dismantled by Big East teams. Furthermore, UNC is always at a disadvantage with athletic and physical teams (e.g. Hoyas in 2007). I therefore expected Kansas to handle them easily. In short, UNC was an overrated team, playing in an overrated conference. Kansas played a great game and exposed UNC for the fraud that it is.
Enough said about the loser 'heels, their crying interviews to the media prove how they were pampered all year, and how roy couldn't 'hand pick' this competition, the 3rd and final team of the year to put them in their place...
Congratulations Kansas!!
And now Kansas has more pressing things to deal with - stopping fast-breaking Memphis and its sensational freshman Derrick Rose.
"We know we've got another step to take Monday night," Sherron Collins said. "It's going to be a great matchup. They play fast, we play fast."
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