NEW ORLEANS — It was, roughly, the same spot where Caleb Love had made so much magic happen. He had a look at the rim. The ball did not come close. North Carolina’s dream season came to an end. The Tar Heels finally woke up.
It will go down in the record books as the largest halftime comeback in the history of the national title game, Kansas coming back from 15 down to post a 72-69 win, but there was no shame in this for the Tar Heels. It became a battle of attrition, players going down and limping off and throwing up, and North Carolina never wavered.
Through this entire tournament, they had found ways out of impossible jams — the collapse against Baylor, the late comeback against UCLA, the cataclysmic win over Duke on Saturday — and they were within a minute of pulling off another great escape.
