First Round

By Blair Kerkhoff

The Wichita Eagle

OMAHA March 16- Suddenly, the college basketball world was riveted to the Detroit-Kansas game Friday night.

Not because of any surge in interest in the teams, but the situation. The Jayhawks are a No. 2 seed, the Titans a No. 15, and hours earlier the NCAA Tournament, was turned upside down with a pair of titanic upsets in meetings between those seeds.

Would Kansas follow Missouri and Duke into the dust pan?

The losing streak of second seeds ended with the Jayhawks, who pounded Detroit 65-50.

�I didn�t need to say anything about Missouri, I didn�t need to,� KU coach Bill Self said.

�But I didn�t make a point of it because when you do it can add pressure.

�The one thing we wanted to do was to make sure Detroit didn�t play well. In upsets, they happen when you let teams get comfortable, and then anything can happen.�

Kansas will take on 10th-seeded Purdue at about 7:40 p.m. Sunday, with the winner advancing to the Sweet 16 in St. Louis.

The only mystery of the second half was the status of point guard Tyshawn Taylor, who left the game for the locker room early in the second half and didn�t return to the sideline. The truTV broadcast crew reported Taylor had suffered leg cramps.

The outcome was decided in the final 4 � minutes of the first half.

Kansas (28-6) ended the half on a 10-3 run, a surge highlighted by a couple of court length drives.

Thomas Robinson provided the first on a steal and hammer finish.

Taylor delivered the second, going end-to-end on a missed free throw in the half�s final seven seconds.

KU had a 10-point, and that it took only a few minutes of the second half to add 10 more to the margin, speaks to how demoralized the Titans were.

The first 15 minutes contained the game�s drama. The Titans (22-14), from the Horizon Conference, forced KU into early mistakes, and Detroit scored on successive possessions to take a 21-19 lead and a jolt of energy.

But the game lulled for the next three minutes. Nobody scored. Finally, KU started it half-ending flurry and the Titans didn�t find any offensive rhythm until the margin was too great to overcome.

Kansas put a clamp on Detroit scoring leader Ray McCallum most of the night. McCallum, the sophomore who took a recruiting visit to Kansas and strongly considered programs like Florida and Arizona before signing to play for his father, entered the game leading the Titans with a 15.6 scoring average.  His dad, Ray McCallum, was no stranger to the Jayhawks. He served as an Oklahoma assistant from 2004-06.

But with a crew of Jayhawks, led by Taylor, handling the assignment, the usually dynamic McCallum was held in check and finished with eight points.

Kansas played most of the second half with Elijah Johnson at the point.

Robinson powered his way to 16 points and 13 rebounds, his 24th double-double of the season.

Johnson made his first five field goals, including three from beyond the arc, to finish with 15, and Taylor had 10.

The Jayhawks� defense was solid throughout the game, holding Detroit to 32-percent shooting (20 of 63). The Titans were 3 of 17 from beyond the arc.

Second Round

By Dave Skretta

Huffington Post

03/18/12 OMAHA, Neb. -- Bill Self leaped to his feet on the Kansas sideline, the typically restrained coach finally unloading with a moment of sheer exuberance.

After trailing almost the entire way against Purdue, his Jayhawks are moving on.

Elijah Johnson scored 18 points, including the go-ahead basket in the final minute, and No. 2 seed Kansas rallied to beat Robbie Hummel and the No. 10 seed Boilermakers 63-60 on Sunday night.

Thomas Robinson fought through double-teams all night for 11 points and 13 rebounds, and the Jayhawks (29-6) got enough production from everyone else to erase a 10-point second-half deficit and reach the Midwest Regional semifinals in St. Louis.

Kansas will face No. 11 seed North Carolina State.

"What a great game. It wasn't the best played, but it was a grind-it-out, typical Big Ten game," Self said. "Hummel was unbelievable and we just hung in there."

Purdue was clinging to a 60-59 lead and had the ball and under a minute remaining when Lewis Jackson, the shot clock winding down, lost control at the top of the key. Johnson picked it up and went the other way for the go-ahead lay-in with 23.3 seconds left.

Hummel missed an open 3-pointer at the other end and Tyshawn Taylor scored a transition dunk for the Jayhawks with 2.5 seconds left, giving the roughly 15,000 fans who had made the three-hour drive from the Kansas campus reason to let out a roar for one of the first times all night.

After a timeout, Purdue sharpshooter Ryne Smith managed to get off a decent look at a long, potential tying 3-pointer. It hit off the backboard, clanked off the rim and finally fell away.

"It stinks," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "It stinks to lose."

Hummel finished with 26 points and nine rebounds for the Boilermakers (22-13), who were trying to reach the round of 16 for the third time in four years. D.J. Byrd and Terone Johnson finished with 10 points each for Purdue.

The Jayhawks' biggest lead all night was their final one. They overcame a rough night by Robinson by getting 10 points from Taylor and 10 more from Travis Releford.

Purdue couldn't have gotten off to a much better start.

Neither could Hummel.

The senior forward hit first four shots, three of them from beyond the arc, and followed up his first miss with another basket with 11:46 to go in the first half that made it 19-8.

He proved too quick for Robinson to guard and too strong for Kevin Young as the Jayhawks kept searching for anybody who could put a body on him � they even tried seldom-used Justin Wesley.

The miserable start by Kansas was enough for Self to scream at his team during one defensive trip down floor, "You told me you were ready!"

Hardly seemed to be the case.

Kansas opened the game by missing 15 of its first 17 shots and all seven of its 3-point tries, compounding lousy offense by getting into foul trouble. Taylor, Young and Releford all sat stretches in the first half after picking up two early fouls.

The Jayhawks finally trimmed the lead to 31-30 with under 3 minutes left in the first half, but Lewis Jackson got inside for a basket, and Hummel managed to swish a closely guarded 3 from about 30 feet as the shot clock wound down to make it 36-30 at the break.

Hummel had 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting in the first half, while the Jayhawks' trio of stars � Robinson, Taylor and Johnson � managed 12 points on a combined 4 for 18.

"I wanted to come out and be aggressive, especially the first half. It seemed like everything I was taking was going in," Hummel said. "It was a crazy feeling you have as a player."

Purdue extended the lead to 42-32 early in the second half, even after Kansas employed a zone defense to slow down Hummel. Johnson led the charge on offense, and the Boilermakers kept locking down Robinson in the post, frustrating the player of the year candidate to no end.

Kansas never went on its patented run, instead slowly clawing back into the game.

The Jayhawks trimmed the lead to 47-44 midway through the second half, but came up empty with four open shots on offense. They got within 52-49 minutes later only for Taylor to turn the ball over. And it was 52-51 with 5 1/2 minutes left when Hummel drove for a layup high off the glass.

Kansas never led until Johnson hit a deep 3-pointer with just over 3 minutes left to make it 57-56. Terone Johnson answered with back-to-back baskets for Purdue to regain a 60-57 lead, but Taylor's alley-oop jam off a feed from Elijah Johnson made it a one-point game.

And set up a dramatic final flurry between Kansas and Purdue.

"We just kept grinding and grinding," Taylor said, "and we ended up making some big plays down the stretch."

Regional Semifinal

ST. LOUIS (AP) Thomas Robinson kept missing easy buckets. Tyshawn Taylor had a shooting performance he'd rather soon forget. Kansas made just two shots from outside 5 feet, and seemed to be in constant trouble against North Carolina State.

Yet a smile kept creeping across Robinson's face. Taylor spent most of the second half Friday night trying to calm down coach Bill Self, who was stomping along the Jayhawks' sideline.

''We haven't been a picture-perfect team all season,'' Self said later, ''but that's one thing that's exciting. The guys take pride in not being perfect. They take pride in winning ugly.''

They certainly won a muddy brawl against the Wolfpack.

Robinson had 18 points and 15 rebounds, Jeff Withey blocked 10 shots to finish one shy of the NCAA tournament record, and the second-seeded Jayhawks held on for a 60-57 victory. They advanced to play top-seeded North Carolina, led by former coach Roy Williams, which escaped with a 73-65 overtime victory over No. 13 seed Ohio earlier in the night.

All the upstarts have headed home.

It's the bluest of the bluebloods in a Sunday showdown for the Final Four.

''They're a great team, great coach, great program,'' Robinson said. ''It's two great programs and when we do meet, I'm pretty sure it's going to go down as a big one.''

It figures to be a little more sexy than their game against the Wolfpack.

Both teams struggled to make shots, run offense and get into a flow. Kansas (30-6) even squandered an eight-point lead in the final few minutes, failing to wrap up the win until Richard Howell's off-balance heave at the buzzer came up well short.

''The guys are tough. They're tough,'' Self said. ''They find a way.''

C.J. Leslie had 18 points to lead N.C. State (24-13), despite sitting much of the second half with four fouls. Scott Wood finished with 12 points on 2-for-10 shooting, though his biggest error wasn't a missed shot but the shot he never even got to attempt.

N.C. State had pulled within 58-57 on a transition layup by C.J. Williams with just over a minute remaining. The teams swapped possessions before Kansas managed to get a layup from Elijah Johnson off an inbound pass from Taylor with 13.5 seconds left (video).

The Wolfpack crossed midcourt and called a timeout to set up a play, which was designed to get the ball to Wood off a baseline pass. Instead, a skip pass went high and the sharpshooter stepped out of bounds trying to pull it in, giving the ball back to Kansas with 5 seconds to go (video).

Robinson was fouled and missed the free throw at the other end, but a pass down court and Howell's tightly guarded shot at the buzzer came up nowhere close, allowing Kansas to escape.

''We did not execute very well. The end of the day, that's my responsibility,'' Gottfried said.

Johnson finished with 11 points for the Jayhawks, who moved on despite a lousy performance by Taylor. Their second-leading scorer had six points on 2-for-14 shooting.

Kansas was just 1 for 14 from beyond the arc as a team.

''It gets frustrating, but I can't hang my head and get down. I've just got to be able to do other things to help my team win,'' said Taylor, who still managed 10 rebounds and five assists.

The Wolfpack took a page from Purdue's playbook over the first eight minutes, using constant double teams on Robinson inside and forcing Kansas to settle for jump shots.

They didn't go in, at least early on.

Just as they did against the Boilermakers last weekend, Kansas struggled to gain traction, and Leslie took advantage by scoring five of his 12 first-half points during an opening salvo.

Williams' 3-pointer gave the Wolfpack a 17-11 lead - their biggest of the half.

Kansas eventually clawed back, relying on defense during a 12-0 run. Withey provided most of it inside with seven blocks in the first half.

''I was just in a zone,'' he said. ''After the first block I just got in a rhythm.''

Leslie answered with back-to-back baskets for N.C. State, and his bucket on the heels of a 3-pointer by Wood gave the Wolfpack a 33-32 lead at the break - their last lead of the game.

Johnson, who provided the big shots that allowed Kansas to reach St. Louis, hit his only 3-pointer of the game out of halftime. It was the start of a 12-2 run during which Leslie was forced to the bench with four fouls and nearly 16 minutes still on the clock.

''It was a very physical game. They're very active coming over and helping,'' he said.

Kansas extended the lead to 50-40 when Taylor lobbed a pass to Withey for an alley-oop dunk, and a partisan crowd inside the Edward Jones Dome roared in approval.

Leslie finally checked back in with less than 7 minutes left, giving N.C. State a brief boost. But moments later he was back on the floor as trainers appeared to work on a cramp, and Kansas pounded away inside before he checked back into the game.

The lead was 58-50 with just over 3 minutes remaining, and Kansas managed to hold on during a furious final stretch to reach another regional final - and earn a date with the Tar Heels.

''We didn't shoot the ball really great. To get the win feels really good,'' Withey said. ''It was all defense, and we're dancing. We're still in the NCAA tournament.''

7-11 lead - their biggest of the half.

Kansas eventually clawed back, relying on defense during a 12-0 run. Withey provided most of it inside with seven blocks in the first half.

''I was just in a zone,'' he said. ''After the first block I just got in a rhythm.''

Leslie answered with back-to-back baskets for N.C. State, and his bucket on the heels of a 3-pointer by Wood gave the Wolfpack a 33-32 lead at the break - their last lead of the game.

Johnson, who provided the big shots that allowed Kansas to reach St. Louis, hit his only 3-pointer of the game out of halftime. It was the start of a 12-2 run during which Leslie was forced to the bench with four fouls and nearly 16 minutes still on the clock.

''It was a very physical game. They're very active coming over and helping,'' he said.

Kansas extended the lead to 50-40 when Taylor lobbed a pass to Withey for an alley-oop dunk, and a partisan crowd inside the Edward Jones Dome roared in approval.

Leslie finally checked back in with less than 7 minutes left, giving N.C. State a brief boost. But moments later he was back on the floor as trainers appeared to work on a cramp, and Kansas pounded away inside before he checked back into the game.

The lead was 58-50 with just over 3 minutes remaining, and Kansas managed to hold on during a furious final stretch to reach another regional final - and earn a date with the Tar Heels.

''We didn't shoot the ball really great. To get the win feels really good,'' Withey said. ''It was all defense, and we're dancing. We're still in the NCAA tournament.''

Regional Final

ST. LOUIS (AP)  Nothing personal, Roy.

Tyshawn Taylor broke out of his slump in a big way Sunday, scoring 22 points and leading Kansas back to the Final Four with an 80-67 victory over former coach Roy Williams and top-seeded North Carolina.

The second-seeded Jayhawks (31-6) will play Ohio State on Saturday in their first appearance in the Final Four since 2008, when they won the national championship.

And how's this for symmetry? Kansas began this year's tournament in Omaha, Neb., the same place as four years ago.

As the game ended, Taylor - much maligned for his shooting struggles during the first three games of the NCAA tournament - ran to Kansas fans and raised both arms in the air.

''There's no way to put into words the way we feel,'' Williams said. ''There's no way to put into words the way I feel. ... It's the NCAA tournament. One team wins and one team loses, and that's what we have to understand.''

Taylor led five Jayhawks in double figures. Player of the year candidate Thomas Robinson added 18 points and nine rebounds, and Elijah Johnson kept up his blistering pace in the tournament with 10 points, including a 3-pointer with 3:07 to play that sparked Kansas' 12-0 run to end the game (video). Jeff Withey made two monster blocks to deny the Tar Heels during the run - including one that set up a big three-point play by Taylor.

Taylor came up with the rebound after Withey swatted away a shot by John Henson and streaked downcourt for a layup, getting fouled by Stilman White in the process (video). As the Kansas-heavy crowd roared, Taylor butted his head into Robinson's chest. He made the free throw to give Kansas a 74-67 lead with 1:59 left, and the Jayhawks cruised from there.

''It was a game of runs,'' Williams said. ''And we didn't answer the last one.''

James Michael McAdoo scored 15 for the Tar Heels (32-6), who played better in their second game without injured star point guard Kendall Marshall. But North Carolina couldn't overcome a 5:46 field goal drought to end the Midwest Regional final.

It was only the third loss in 12 regional final appearances for the Tar Heels, but their second straight after losing to Kentucky last year.

This was only the second time Williams had faced Kansas since leaving the school where he spent his first 15 years as a head coach, taking the Jayhawks to the NCAA title game twice - they lost in both 1991 and 2003 - and two other Final Fours. Though Kansas fans have softened some - Williams was still greeted with a chorus of boos - Williams said Saturday that facing his old team will always be unpleasant.

''Too emotional for me. That's the bottom line,'' Williams said, calling Kansas his ''second-favorite'' team. ''I don't think it'll ever feel good for me, regardless of the outcome. I don't think I'll ever feel comfortable with it.''

At least this one went better than the first meeting, at the 2008 Final Four, where the Jayhawks walloped North Carolina on the way to winning the title Williams never could at Kansas.

Both teams made impressive recoveries from their ugly wins Friday night, starting on a crisp, torrid pace that had both shooting better than 56 percent at halftime.

North Carolina was playing a second straight game without the dazzling Marshall, who Williams called ''our engine, our driver, the head of the thing.'' But unlike Friday, when the Tar Heels turned the ball over a season-high 24 times and looked surprisingly disheveled, they had things back under control Sunday.

White, a freshman, may be a ''wacko,'' as Williams has said affectionately several times the last few days, but the kid knows how to run an offense. He had seven assists Sunday, giving him 13 for the two games without a single turnover.

The Jayhawks seemed on the verge of pulling away several times, only to have Carolina reel them back in. But just before the midway point of the second half, Kansas established some breathing room when Travis Releford scored on a jumper to start an 8-2 run. Taylor capped the spurt with a swirl-in jumper and a dunk off a turnover by John Henson to give the Jayhawks a 66-61 lead.

Tyler Zeller pulled the Tar Heels within two on a putback, and Harrison Barnes made the first of two free throws to make it 68-67 with 3:58 to play. But Johnson, shooting almost 52 percent in the tournament, drained that 3 from NBA range to start the decisive run.

''It was a four-point game. It quickly became nine,'' said Zeller, who had 12 points and six rebounds. ''We had a timeout and I think we still thought we had a chance then. We came down and they made a great stop. ... Once they started making free throws, it hit double digits and we knew time was running out.''

National Semifinal

NEW ORLEANS (AP)- The tightrope walk rocks on for the Jayhawks.

Kansas, the underrated, undervalued team that's been teetering on the edge of the tournament since before it even began, is now one of the last two left.

Tyshawn Taylor made two big free throws late, and All-American Thomas Robinson finished with 19 points and eight rebounds Saturday night to lift the Jayhawks to a come-from-behind 64-62 win over Ohio State in the Final Four - a game Kansas led for a grand total of 3 minutes, 48 seconds.

After scoring the game's first bucket, Kansas didn't lead again until Travis Releford made two free throws with 2:48 left. That lasted for 11 seconds, but the Jayhawks (32-6), who trailed by as many as 13, overcame another deficit and finally held on against the Buckeyes (31-8).

"It's just been our thing all year, coming back," Robinson said. "I don't like doing it, but for some reason my team is pretty good when we're down."

More than pretty good. Kansas is one more magic act from bringing its second title in five years back to Allen Fieldhouse. It might take exactly that. The opponent is Kentucky, the big-time favorite to win it all, and a 69-61 winner over Louisville in the evening's first semifinal. The Wildcats are an early 6.5-point favorite.

"It's a dream to play the best team in the country, up `til now, hands down, the most consistent," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "It's a thrill. And I think it's even more of a thrill for us, because I don't think anybody thought we could get here."

Taylor's two free throws with 8.3 seconds left gave Kansas a 64-61 lead, matching its biggest of the game. The Jayhawks intentionally fouled Aaron Craft with 2.9 seconds left. Craft made the first, then quickly clanked the second one off the front of the rim but was called for a lane violation (video).

Kansas dribbled out the clock and celebrated a win that played out sort of the way the whole season has in Lawrence.

With most of the experienced players from last year gone, Self at times wondered if this team was even tournament material. The Jayhawks still won the Big 12 title - for the eighth straight time - but came into the tournament as what some felt was an underrated No. 2 seed.

They played down to their billing in their second game, against Purdue, barely escaping with a 63-60 win that looked a lot like this game in the Superdome.

"It was two different games," Self said of the latest escape act. "They dominated us the first half. We were playing in quicksand it looked like. And the light came on. We were able to play through our bigs; we were able to get out and run, but the biggest thing is we got stops."

Kansas' next test will feature a coaching rematch between Self and John Calipari, who was with Memphis in 2008 when the Tigers missed four free throws down the stretch and blew a nine-point lead in an overtime loss to Mario Chalmers and the Jayhawks.

A big comeback. Sound familiar? This year's Jayhawks also overcame a 19-point deficit to win their final regular-season meeting against Missouri - their long-time, SEC-bound archrival.

"It's a 40-minute game," Self said. "There's no 13-point plays. You have to grind it and get one stop at a time."

This was a heartbreaker for the Buckeyes, who came in as co-Big Ten champions and a slight favorite in a game - a rematch of a 78-67 Kansas win back in December when Ohio State's All-American, Jared Sullinger, was not available.

Sullinger was there a-plenty Saturday night, but he struggled. He finished with 11 points on 5-for-19 shooting, no fewer than three of them blocked by Jeff Withey, the Kansas center who finished with seven swats. Sullinger also had 11 rebounds and 3 blocks, but the sophomore who gave up NBA lottery money to return and win a championship will go without for at least another year.

When the buzzer sounded, he plopped at midcourt, clearly pooped - and maybe wondering how his team let this game slip away.

"These guys got tears in their eyes, blank stares on their faces," Sullinger said. "It's tough on me."

Ohio State-Kansas was billed as "The Other Game" of this Final Four - garnering much less ink than the Kentucky-Louisville blood feud that preceded it - and started off looking like every bit the undercard.

The Buckeyes built an early 13-point lead on the strength of the shooting of William Buford, who came out of a 13-for-44 tournament slump to lead the Buckeyes with 19 points on 6 for 10 from the floor. Kansas trailed 34-25 at the half and only a steal and layup before the buzzer prevented the Jayhawks from a season-low (video).

Things changed when Ohio State came out and promptly missed its first 10 shots from the field, while Deshaun Thomas - the Ohio State big man in charge of shutting down Robinson - headed to the bench with his third foul.

That opened things up for KU: A couple easy layups for Robinson and a kick-out to Elijah Johnson for a 3-pointer were part of a 13-4 run to open the half. It tied the game at 38 and set up for a nip-and-tuck finish between these No. 2 seeds, each of which were in the hunt for top seeding all the way up to Selection Sunday.

Releford finished with 15 points and six rebounds for the Jayhawks. Johnson had 13 points and 10 boards. Taylor finished with 10 points and nine assists - not bad considering the time Craft spent glued to him much of the night.

Craft said he thought a quick brick and a rebound on the final free throw was his best chance to save the game. There wasn't much of an argument after he got called for the lane violation, however.

"There is no explanation," Craft said. "Apparently I crossed before it hit the rim. I just knew I had to miss it. I thought that would be the best way for us to get the ball back."

That end-game was set up when Releford made two free throws with 1:37 left to put KU ahead 60-59. Buford tried to take the ball to the basket on the next possession, but Withey swatted it away. Johnson followed with a layup - hardly as dramatic as his game-winner against Purdue, but enough for a three-point lead, which seemed like a million for the Jayhawks in this one.

Not that the Jayhawks need a big lead - or any lead.

"I think we're trying to make it fun for y'all," Robinson said. "Seriously, I wish it would stop. I mean, I'd feel better at the end."

National Championship Game

Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS- Won and Done, indeed. Maybe even Over and Out.

All that really matters is Kentucky parlayed a roster full of NBA talent into a 67-59 victory Monday night over Kansas for the team's eighth NCAA basketball title -- its first since 1998.

Kentucky's top freshman, Anthony Davis, had a rough shooting night, but John Calipari coached this team to a wire-to-wire victory -- a little dicey at the end -- to cap a season that cried for no less than a championship for the Wildcats' ol' Kentucky home.

"I wanted everybody to see, we were the best team this season," said the coach, who finally has the championship that eluded him all those years. "We were the best team. I wanted this to be one for the ages."

Doron Lamb, a sophomore with first-round-draft-pick possibilities, led the Wildcats (38-2) with 22 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers that put them up by 16 with 10 minutes left.

The Jayhawks (32-7), kings of the comeback all season, fought to the finish and trimmed that deficit to five with 1:37 left (video). But Kentucky made five free throws down the stretch to seal the win.

Davis' fellow lottery prospect Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was another headliner, creating space for himself to score all 11 of his points in the first half.

Davis, meanwhile, might have had the most dominating six-point night in the history of college basketball, earning the nod as the most outstanding player. He finished with 16 rebounds, six blocks, five assists and three steals -- and made his only field goal with 5:13 left in the game (video). It was a surefire illustration of how the 6-foot-10 freshman can exert his will on a game even on a rare night when his shot isn't falling.

"Well, it's not me, it's these guys behind me," Davis said after his 1-for-10 performance. "They led us this whole tournament. This whole game, I was struggling offensively, and I told my team, every time down, you all score the ball; I'm just gonna defend and rebound."

So much easier when you've got teammates like this. Davis is the likely first pick in the draft, although he said he hasn't decided yet whether he will leave college, and Kidd-Gilchrist won't be far behind. Another first-round prospect, freshman Marquis Teague, had 14 points. And yet another, sophomore Terrence Jones, had nine points, seven rebounds and two of Kentucky's 11 blocked shots.

"I love the fact Anthony Davis goes 1-for-10, and you all say he was biggest factor of game," Calipari said. "He was 1-for-10. I asked these guys what they would do without scoring. You have an idea what he does."

Kansas also has a lottery pick in AP All-American Thomas Robinson. He was harassed all night by Davis and Jones, and finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds on a 6-for-17 shooting night. He left upset, although not overly impressed with Davis, whom he'll certainly see in the NBA over the next several years.

"He's not Superman," Robinson said. "He's just a great player. I don't mean to be disrespectful by it, but as a competitor, I'm not going to sit here and give all my praise to someone I go up against."

Calipari avenged a final-game loss to Bill Self back in 2008 when Calipari was coaching Memphis. The Tigers missed four late free throws in blowing a nine-point lead in that one. Kansas didn't get any such help this time.

Even so, it wasn't a bad season in Lawrence, considering where KU began.

Kansas lost four of its top five scorers off last season's roster. There were times early in the season when Self and his old buddy and mentor, Larry Brown, would stand around at practices and wonder whether this was a team that could even make the tournament. It did. Won its eighth straight conference title, too.

"Nobody even expected us to be here in the first place, for us to have a great season," KU guard Travis Releford said. "And we did. We were able to compete for a championship. We had a great year."

None of this, however, was for the faint of heart. The Jayhawks trailed by double digits in three of their five tournament games leading to the final and played every game down to the wire. They fell behind by 18 late in the first half of this one, and this time, there was no big comeback to be made, not against these guys.

"We knew coming in that we had been in situations like that before," Releford said. "We played like that all year. We figured we'd come out in the second half and run how we did. It just wasn't good enough."

Davis realized early this was no shoot-first night for him at the Superdome, and Calipari all but told him to cool it at halftime.

"I said, 'Listen to me, don't you go out there and try to score,'" the coach said.

The freshman listened. Sporting his near-unibrow, which the Wildcats' mascot also decided to paste on, he endured the worst shooting night of a short college career in which he made 64 percent. No big deal. He set the tone early on defense, swatting Robinson's shot twice, grabbing rebounds, making pretty bounce passes for assists.

Early in the second half, he made a steal that also could have been an assist, knocking the ball out of Robinson's hands and directly to Jones, who dunked for a 46-30 lead.

Then, finally. With 5:13 left in the game, he spotted up for a 15-foot jumper from the baseline that swished for a 59-44 lead, putting a dagger in one of Kansas' many comebacks.

"He was terrific," Self said. "The basket he made was one of the biggest baskets of the game."

The crowd, a little more full of Kentucky fans than Kansas fans, went crazy. If this guy stays one year and makes only one shot, they're fine with that.

It's the new normal at Kentucky, where Adolph Rupp set a standard, Rick Pitino lived up to it for a while, then Calipari -- hardly the buttoned-down type -- was hired to bring back the glory.

He goes for the best player, no matter what the athlete's long-term goals.

Normally, the prospect of losing all those players in one swoop would have people thinking about a tough rebuilding season.

But Calipari has mastered the art of rebuilding on the fly.

He's the coach who brings in the John Walls, Brandon Knights and Derrick Roses (at Memphis) for cups of coffee, lets them sharpen up their r�sum�s, then happily says goodbye when it becomes obvious there's nothing left for them to do in school.

Last season, the formula resulted in a trip to the Final Four that ended with a crushing loss to Connecticut in the semifinals.

This season, Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist and the rest came to Lexington with big-time bona-fides, and they didn't disappoint. Kentucky lost only twice all season -- once on a buzzer-beater at Indiana, the second time last month in the SEC tournament title game to Vanderbilt, in the arena across the way from the Superdome.

That trip to New Orleans might have been, as Calipari put it, just what the doctor ordered for a team that could sometimes border on arrogance.

The Wildcats rebounded nicely for the real tournament, and through it all, the coach refused to apologize for the way he recruits or how he runs his program. Just playing by the rules as they're set up, he says, even if he doesn't totally agree with them. Because he refuses to promise minutes or shots to any recruit and demands teamwork out of all of them, he says he comes by these players honestly.

He has produced nine first-round picks in the past four drafts with a few more coming. This latest group will have an NCAA title in tow and the everlasting love of a fan base that bleeds basketball.

When it was over, all that Kentucky talent ran to the corner of the court, got in a group huddle, and jumped up and down like the kids they really are. Will Calipari coach any of them again?

"What I'm hoping is there are six first-rounders on this team," the coach said. "I'm fine with that. That's why I've got to go recruiting on Friday."