NCAA men’s championship game
Kentucky 67, Kansas 59 m
NEW ORLEANS — Down by 18 points late in the first half, this was going to be a bit much to overcome even for the Kansas Jayhawks, who had made a memorable March by surviving near-disasters.
Clawing past Purdue, struggling to overcome North Carolina State and coming from way back to beat Ohio State in a national semifinal had given them the hope they could do anything.
But they couldn’t, a testament to the excellence of the 2011-12 Kentucky Wildcats.
“No team in the country matches up with Kentucky,” Kansas’ All-america forward Thomas Robinson said after the Jayhawks fell 67-59 Monday night in the national championship game.
The Jayhawks had absolutely no quit in them but also had no magic, no miracle and, this time, no championship. And very few regrets. “It’s a pretty bad feeling right now, but I love how we fought,” Kansas senior point guard Tyshawn Taylor said. “This will hurt for a while. But when we look back, we’ll be OK with it. We fought our hearts out.”
Jayhawks coach Bill Self got the better of John Calipari in 2008, when Kansas beat Calipari’s Memphis in the national championship game.
But Calipari’s Kentucky team was just too much Monday.
Self had a few nits to pick with his team. But just a few.
“I just think Kentucky is really good, and they made some plays,” Self said.
Robinson, a 6-10 junior who is Kansas’ leading scorer, epitomized his team in its last game of the season.
He played hard. He competed. But too often, his efforts just didn’t work out.
Robinson, guarded by Kentucky’s burly Terrence Jones — and with 6-10 Kentucky shot-blocker Anthony Davis, the college player of the year, lurking in the lane — had a frustrating game.
He had 18 points and 17 rebounds, but he missed 11 of 17 shots from the field and was ineffective when Kentucky ran away to a big lead in the first half.
“I would go over my left shoulder against Jones, and then I’d see Anthony coming over the top of him,” Robinson said. “He (Davis) definitely impacted the game on defense.”
Kansas got a bit of a ragged game from Taylor, who scored a team-high 19 points but missed eight of his first 13 shots and had five turnovers.
Kentucky started with Michael KiddGilchrist, a physical, quick 6-7 forward, guarding Taylor, in an effort to cut the head off the Kansas offense.
When the Jayhawks did work the ball effectively and get good entries to Robinson in the post, he often couldn’t finish, missing eight of his first 10 shots.
When Kentucky missed its first five shots in the second half and Kansas got within 11, another Jayhawks comeback seemed at least a remote possibility.
Even after Kentucky stretched the lead back to 16, Kansas made another spirited surge, scrapping back to within five points with 1:37 left.
In the end, they left having not made enough plays to win a championship but having done enough to go forward with clear consciences.
“I don’t think we lost,” Self said. “I think they just beat us.”