East Regional champion North Carolina (29-9) plays Midwest champion Kansas (33-6) in the 2022 national championship game on Monday, April 4, in New Orleans in the Caesars Superdome. Tip time is 9:20 p.m. Eastern (8:20 p.m. local time).
About UNC
- Carolina is playing in the national championship game for the 12th time (second most all-time behind UCLA’s 13). UNC has played in the finals in 1946, 1957, 1968, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2016, 2017 and 2022.
- Carolina is playing in the championship game for the third time in six seasons.
- UNC is 6-5 in NCAA title games, including 2-0 in the Superdome.
- The Tar Heels have won NCAA championships in 1957 under Frank McGuire, 1982
and 1993 in New Orleans under Dean Smith and 2005, 2009 and 2017 for Roy Williams.
- Carolina and Kansas are playing in the Final Four for the fifth time, two more than any other matchup in Final Four history (Duke-Kansas, UCLA-Louisville and UNC-Michigan State have all played three times in the Final Four).
- UNC defeated KU in the 1957 championship game and the 1993 semifinals; the Jayhawks beat UNC in the semifinals in 1991 and 2008.
- With a win, Hubert Davis would become the first individual to lead his team to a national championship in his first full season as a head coach (Michigan’s Steve Fisher was the head coach for the six NCAA Tournamentmgames in 1989).
- Davis, the winner of the John McLendon Award as the 2021-22 National Coach of the Year, is the fifth individual to lead his team to the national championship game in his first season as a college head coach (Dick Harp of Kansas in 1957, Indiana State’s Bill Hodges in 1979, UCLA’s Larry Brown in 1980, Fisher and Davis).
- Carolina is the fifth No. 8 seed to play in the national championship game. UCLA lost to Louisville in 1980, Villanova defeated Georgetown in 1985, Butler lost to UConn in 2011 and Kentucky lost to UConn in 2014.
- Carolina is 15-1 in New Orleans, including 6-1 in the NCAA Tournament and 5-0 in the Final Four.
- Carolina is 9-1 in the Superdome, including winning the 1982 and 1993 NCAA championships.
- The Tar Heels lead the ACC and are sixth in the country in rebound margin at plus 8.2 per game. UNC also leads the ACC and is sixth nationally in rebounds per game (40.9).
- Carolina is averaging 47.8 rebounds per game in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and has a rebound margin of 11.6 through the first five rounds.
- This is the first time UNC ever had four players score 500 or more points in a season. Armando Bacot (620), Caleb Love (608), Brady Manek (576) and RJ Davis (512) have 500 or more points.
About Kansas
- Kansas appears in its 10th NCAA Championship all-time, including its third under head coach Bill Self. With the 81-65 win over Villanova, Kansas has 13 Final Four wins, which is the fifth most all-time.
- Head coach Bill Self has coached 54 NCAA tournament wins, which is the fifth most all-time. Self’s 75 NCAA tournament games breaks a tie for fifth all-time with Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo.
- Kansas enters the National Championship game as the winningest program in NCAA Division I men’s basketball history with 2,356 wins. Kansas surpassed Kentucky (2,354) on March 25 with its win over No. 4 seeded Providence, 66-61 in the Sweet 16.
- The Jayhawks and Tar Heels meet for the 12th time in the series history with North Carolina holding the series advantage at 6-5. The two teams last met on March 24, 2013 in the NCAA Tournament second round in Kansas City, Mo., in which Kansas came out victorious, 70-58.
- The two teams have met six times in the NCAA Tournament, with Kansas 4-2 in those games.
- Head coach Bill Self is 4-1 against North Carolina in his career, including 3-0 at Kansas, with each of them coming in the NCAA Tournament.
- Kansas has out-rebounded its opponent 28 times this season, where the Jayhawks are 28-0 this season and 417-50 under head coach Bill Self. Kansas owns a +5.4 rebound margin throughout the 2021-22 season.
- Entering the NCAA Tournament title game, Kansas owns a 10-game win streak, Kansas’ first double-digit win streak since closing the 2020 season with 16-straight wins. Under head coach Bill Self, Kansas now has 18 streaks of 10 or more wins in a row.
- Kansas leads the Big 12 in scoring at 78.3 points per game, which is 24th nationally, field goal percentage (47.9%, 21st nationally) and three-point field goal percentage (36.1%).
- KU is second in the league in assists (15.4) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.3). KU has a plus-11.2 scoring margin, which is 15th nationally, and pulls down 37.9 rebounds per game with a plus-5.4 rebound margin. KU also averages 6.3 steals and 4.3 blocked shots per game.
Kansas is 25-0 when holding opponents to under 70 points this season.
- Kansas is 27-3 when leading at halftime this season and is 8-0 in its last eight halftime advantages.
- Kansas has led by 30-plus minutes in seven of the last eight games and 24 times this season. Kansas led wire-to-wire in its Final Four victory over Villanova.
- Kansas is 33-7 when Agbaji makes three or more three-pointers in a game: 2-0 as a freshman, 6-0 as a sophomore, 11-4 as a junior and 14-3 this season.
- The Jayhawks enter the NCAA Championship winners of their last 10 games, Kansas’ first double-digit win streak since closing the 2020 season with 16-straight wins. Under head coach Bill Self, Kansas now has 18 streaks of 10 or more wins in a row.
UNC vs Kansas
- The Tar Heels are 6-5 all-time against Kansas although the Jayhawks have won the last three matchups, all in the NCAA Tournament (2008, 2012 and 2013).
- UNC is 2-4 vs. Kansas in the NCAA Tournament with wins in the 1957 title game and 1993 semifinal in New Orleans. KU beat Carolina in the 1991 semifinals, the 2008 semifinals, the 2012 Elite 8 and the 2013 second round.
- Carolina and Kansas are playing in the Final Four for the fifth time, two more than any other matchup in Final Four history (Duke-Kansas, UCLA-Louisville and UNC-Michigan State have all played three times in the Final Four).
- Kansas and Carolina rank first and third, respectively, in all-time wins.
- The Tar Heels have the most NCAA Tournamentm wins in history (131) while KU is fourth with 114.
- Carolina is first in Final Fours with 21; Kansas is fifth with 16.
- Carolina is second all-time in NCAA Tournament winning percentage (.732) and the
Jayhawks are fifth (.704).
- The first five games in the series were decided by an average of 5.6 points, which included a pair of one-point games. The last five games (including two UNC wins) have all been decided by 10 or more points.
- The Carolina and Kansas connections are numerous and historic. Dean Smith played at Kansas, winning a national championship in 1952 and playing in another Final Four in 1953. He led UNC to 879 wins and two NCAA titles as head coach.
- Roy Williams won 418 games in 15 seasons as Kansas’s head coach from 1988-2003 and led the Jayhawks to four Final Four appearances. Williams won 485 games and three national titles in 15 seasons as UNC’s head coach.
Game Info
Time: 8:49 p.m. (ET)
TV: TBS (Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill, Tracy Wolfson)
Stream: NCAA.com
Radio: Tar Heel Sports Properties (Jones Angell, Eric Montross, Adam Lucas)
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