Kansas cruises to 81-65 win over Villanova in Final Four

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ochai Agbaji followed a celebrating stream of Kansas players off the floor at the Final Four, their shouts of “One more!” echoing all the way up the tunnel of the Superdome and right to the door of their locker room.

One more game awaits, the biggest of their careers.

The Jayhawks earned a trip back to the national championship Saturday night with a shooting performance that will go down in history. David McCormack muscled his way for 25 points, Ochai Agbaji hit six 3-pointers and had 21, and the only No. 1 seed to reach the national semifinals rolled to an 81-65 victory over Villanova before a huge crowd that packed the home of the New Orleans Saints one year after the pandemic kept just about everyone away.

“That’s everyone’s attitude — even after this game, even after last weekend, the weekend before that — everyone’s attitude was on to the next one,” Agbaji said, “and not looking too far ahead at what’s going on Monday.”

It will be a blueblood clash no matter what. The Jayhawks will face Duke, with retiring coach Mike Krzyzewski perhaps on the sideline for the final time, or North Carolina, which has made more trips to the Final Four than anyone.

“You come to Kansas for big games,” said Christian Braun, who also had 10 points Saturday night, “but you don’t come to Kansas to play in the Elite Eight. You don’t come to Kansas to play in the Final Four. You come to play for a championship.”

The Jayhawks ( 33- 6) hope a familiar pattern holds on Monday: The last three times the Jayhawks and Wildcats have met in the NCAA Tournament, the winner has gone on to win it all, including a lopsided Final Four matchup four years ago in San Antonio.

Playing without injured guard Justin Moore, the Wildcats (30-8) watched as Kansas scored the game’s first 10 points and eventually built a 19-point cushion Saturday night. And despite big performances from Collin Gillespie, Brandon Slater and Jermaine Samuels, the short-handed and undersized Wildcats never made it all the way back.

AP PHOTO/DAVID J. PHILLIP Kansas’ David McCormack (33) shoots over Villanova’s Jermaine Samuels (23) during the first half of a college basketball game in the semifinal round of the Men’s Final Four NCAA tournament, on Saturday in New Orleans.