Daily News | David McCormack dominated Villanova, then won Kansas the national championship | Mike Sielski
NEW ORLEANS — The netting from the Superdome’s southern-side rim ringing his neck like a string of Bourbon Street beads, David McCormack held an odd smile on his face, a mix of daze and elation. His coach, Bill Self, had handed McCormack the net during the Kansas Jayhawks’ celebration of their 72-69 victory over North Carolina, after they followed up their 16-point rout of Villanova on Saturday with a 16-point comeback Monday night, the biggest rally in the history of the NCAA Championship Game.
He was the most stable and stabilizing factor in a national-title game in which it often appeared that any player who happened to be dribbling the basketball would go careening around the court, aimless and reckless and directionless, as if being chased by a swarm of bees.
Assuming he could bring himself to tune in to TBS on Monday night, Jay Wright had to be sick to his stomach throughout the first half, ruing the opportunity that he and the Wildcats had missed roughly 48 hours earlier. “With the group of guys as experienced as this,” senior forward Mitch Lightfoot said, “it’s kind of hard to see us get rattled.”
At halftime, Self framed what might have seemed an insurmountable deficit as no big deal, referencing his 2008 team’s late surge to beat Memphis in the title game. “I said, ‘Which would be harder: being down nine with two minutes left or being down 15 with 20?’” Self said. “And they all said being down nine with two minutes left. So we can do this.” And McCormack displayed so much optimism that he puzzled his own teammates.
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