NEW ORLEANS — North Carolina will play Kansas for the title Monday.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s remarkable career came to a thrilling and sudden close Saturday night after Caleb Love made a key 3-pointer and three late free throws to lift archrival UNC to a thrill-a-minute 81-77 victory over the Blue Devils.
So, instead of Krzyzewski going for his sixth title, on Monday, Carolina will try to win its seventh. It will be Love, who led the Tar Heels with 28 points, and R.J. Davis, who scored 18, going against Kansas, which beat Villanova 81-65 earlier in the undercard.
The last three times that the Jayhawks and Wildcats have met in the tournament, the winner has gone on to win it all.
“You come to Kansas for big games,” said Christian Braun, who had 10 points against the Wildcats, “but you don’t come to Kansas to play in the Elite Eight. You don’t come to Kansas to play in the Final Four. You come to play for a championship.”