-Kansas’ run finally ends,
NEW ORLEANS — So breathtaking, so brilliant is Kentucky’s young talent that it obscures one other important facet of college basketball’s best team.
The Wildcats have some serious grit.
Kansas was Kansas in Monday night’s NCAA tournament final. Tough. Relentless. But so were the Wildcats, getting big plays at big moments for the second time in two Final Four games and turning back the Jayhawks 67-59 to win the eighth national championship in the program’s rich history. “I don’t think we lost,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “I think they just beat us.”
National player of the year Anthony Davis hit one of his 10 shots from the field, finding little room to maneuver through Kansas’ inside tandem of Thomas Robinson and 7-foot Jeff Withey. The 6-10, 220-pound freshman was nonetheless sublime. And his impact was immense.
Davis piled up 16 rebounds, six blocked shots, five assists and three steals in what certainly will be his final game in a college uniform before hearing his name called at the start of June’s NBA draft.
“I let my teammates do all the scoring,” he said afterward, “and I just focused on defending.”
The Wildcats backcourt of Doron Lamb and Marquis Teague hit five of nine three-point attempts, combined for 36 points and six assists and committed only three turnovers in 35 and 34 minutes.
The ’Cats were blowing Kansas away, twice pulling to 18-point leads in the first half. And then they weren’t. The Jayhawks mounted a charge. A crowd of almost 71,000 at the Mercedes-benz Superdome was roaring — or half of them were. The half in Kentucky blue held its collective breath.
Kentucky coach John Calipari’s reliance on sophomores and likely oneand-done freshmen — six among the Wildcats’ top seven players — was on trial. His young teams wilted in the East Regional final two years earlier against West Virginia and in the tour- nament semifinals last April against eventual champion Connecticut. This one wouldn’t. Down 54-38 with less than 10 minutes left to play, Kansas scrambled back within 12, then nine and finally five, 62-57, when Robinson dropped two free throws with 1:37 left.
Michael Kidd-gilchrist came up big again against Kansas. After a Davis free throw, the 6-7 freshman got his only blocked shot of the night against the Jayhawks’ Tyshawn Taylor. Kansas briefly recovered the ball, then threw it away.
Teague calmly hit two free throws with 53.9 seconds left to make it 6557, and that was that.