After blowing a 16-point lead in a defeat to Kansas, UNC Basketball Twitter sent out a simple but heartfelt statement.
It appeared to be over, and another flag was on its way to Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels of North Carolina led by 16 points at one point in the first half and by 15 at halftime.
Then, in the national title game, UNC squandered a 16-point lead to Kansas, the greatest blown lead in the history of the game. It’s the kind of loss that sticks with you.
UNC’s basketball After the last buzzer, Twitter summed it up well.
In the second half, everything that could go wrong did. The Tar Heels stuttered in the second half after a first half where everything was running on all cylinders, eerily reminiscent of when they lost a 25-point lead against Baylor earlier in the tournament but just escaped in overtime. It wasn’t meant to be this time.
Basketball at North Carolina The right reaction to the Tar Heels’ loss to the Jayhawks was on Twitter
It’s easy to claim that North Carolina’s semifinal victory over Duke was the national title, and that it marked the end of Coach K’s collegiate basketball career. That, however, was only a semifinal; today was the true national championship game, and Kansas won it for the first time since 2008.
Everything seemed to be going swimmingly. Caleb Love and Brady Manek were in charge, and the Tar Heels’ lineup was making shots, blocking shots, and playing with a lot of energy. The second half was a different story, with UNC unable to stop David McCormack, Christian Braun, and the rest of Kansas’ offense. It didn’t help that Armando Bacot was taken out in the last seconds.
The Tar Heels’ season comes to a close on a heartbreaking note. Coach K’s run in college basketball may have come to an end since they advanced to the national final as an 8-seed.
But that won’t make the loss to Kansas any less painful.
