Kansas players explain the keys to second half turnaround vs. North Carolina

On Monday night, the Kansas Jayhawks and North Carolina Tar Heels fought for the National Championship. It was the Tar Heels that controlled play in the first half, carrying a 40-25 lead into halftime. But after the two teams emerged for the second half, it was all Jayhawks.

Kansas woke up offensively in the second half, putting up 47 points and holding North Carolina to 29. That was enough to secure the victory, winning by a final score of 72-69. The key to the second half turnaround against North Carolina was the team’s message inside the locker room at halftime.

For Kansas star Ochai Agbaji, who was named the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, Kansas head coach Bill Self challenged his players in the locker room, and it fired the team up for the final 20 minutes.

“I would say it kind of just took us back to when we were at K-State,” Agbaji said. “The message was obviously different. Coach, he obviously challenged us and he was amped up in there. But it was a matter of us playing our game and executing in the second half and taking away what they were getting at in the first half.”

Agbaji scored 12 points in Monday’s title game. Mitch Lightfoot, who had two points in just seven minutes in the title game, pointed to the experience on the Kansas roster as a reason for the turnaround.

“I would say — I said this a couple of days ago in media, with the group of guys as experienced as this and been around and know each other so well, it’s kind of hard to see us get rattled,” Lightfoot said. “And I think we bounced back at halftime. Coach had a great message for us, and he challenged us to be better and to have more pride. And we did that.”

Dajuan Harris played a big role in the turnaround for Kansas vs. North Carolina

Later on in postgame, Agbaji shouted out Kansas sophomore Dajuan Harris as a key reason for the Jayhawks’ turnaround against North Carolina. Harris has just two points and three assists in 27 minutes, but he also had three steals, one block, and made a great impact on the defensive side of the ball.

“It was Dajuan he sparked it in the second half,” Agbaji said. “Coach said it in the locker room. Just his defensive pressure rubbed off on everyone else and that’s where we got that momentum from on the defensive end and everything else fell in place on the offense.”

Harris said that he simply didn’t want to walk away without a national title this season. He came to college with this group of guys, and he wanted to come away with a win for his teammates. And that’s exactly what Kansas did.

“I just wanted to go,” Harris responded. “I didn’t want to lose. When I came to college I came to college with them, (indiscernible) Remy. I just wanted to give it my all for them. That’s all it was.”