Jayhawks muster the strength to come back to win. It took serious belief in the team’s comeback from 15 point deficit.
“I just thought, ‘Keep believing,'” Chalmers said after Kansas’ 72-69 come-from-behind win over North Carolina. “The same thing Coach [Bill] Self told us [in 2008] was to keep believing. And I knew they’d be able to pull it out in the end.”
This was an amazing comeback victory with a great team.
“We were disappointed with how we played at halftime,” Self said after staging a 16-point comeback, the greatest deficit a winning team has overcome in the national championship game in NCAA history. “I told them, ‘Would you rather be down 15 points at halftime or nine with [two minutes] left?’ because that’s what happened in ’08. They all said 15.”
His players also looked around the locker room at one another and began to yell, “We’re coming back! We’re coming back!”
“We ended up guarding the 3-point line and going inside to the post guys and got a couple of them in foul trouble,” said Kansas assistant Kurtis Townsend. “We really tried to [speed them up]. We thought they’d be worn out from the game the other day. The last round was all we needed.”
“That team in 2008, they played better when they were facing [adversity],” Self told ESPN at Big 12 media day in October. “We got some things that are similar, but I don’t know if when it really gets down to it, how much this team will enjoy that [adversity] when that team loved it. The harder it was, the more they enjoyed it.”
“It feels even better than I thought it would,” Self said before he climbed a ladder to snip a piece of the net at the Superdome.
“Most teams,” Chalmers said, “would give up in a moment like that.”
It seemed like they just did not give up and they believed and did not want to go home with a lost period. Great game and a great comeback.
