Kansas, after national title run, braces for NCAA investigation

When you overcome a 15-point halftime deficit against a team that is on one of the great rolls in tournament history, you are a worthy champion. Kansas was down 40-25 at the break, then started the second half on a remarkable 31-10 run to lead 56-50. Even then, the Tar Heels weren’t done, coming back to lead 69-68 with 1:41 to go before Kansas scored the game’s last four points.

The championship was Bill Self’s second, the first one coming 14 years ago in San Antonio. In that title game, the Jayhawks trailed Memphis by nine points with 2:12 left before rallying to tie the score on Mario Chambers’ buzzer-beating three-pointer and then winning in overtime.

Self reached back for that memory at halftime when talking to his players. “I asked them, ‘Which do you think is tougher, being down nine with two minutes to go or being down 15 with 20 minutes to go?’” he said. “They all said it was being down nine with two minutes to go.”

But now, the end finally appears in sight, and it could impact the national champions. Kansas is accused of five major violations of NCAA rules. The penalties could range from a wrist-slap suspension for Self to a suspension of the program from next season’s tournament.

The last NCAA champion not allowed to go for two in a row? Kansas, in 1989. Those Jayhawks were banned from postseason play for violations committed under Larry Brown, who coached his team to the national title in 1988 and then left for the NBA. Roy Williams was left to deal with the sanctions in his first season.

The only team to get stripped of its championship is Rick Pitino’s 2013 Louisville squad. The banner Kansas earned Monday night won’t come down: The alleged violations took place before any of this past season’s players were involved in the program.

There was certainly no talk of any of that Monday night. For a couple of hours, the Tar Heels and Jayhawks made everyone remember that, as Tony LaRussa once said of baseball, “the game is better than all of us.”

Apparently, Coach Hubert Davis and his players didn’t quite see it that way. They knew if they wanted to end this season with ultimate joy, they had to win one more.

The Tar Heels went on a 16-0 run late in the first half to lead 38-22, with Brady Manek, the 6-foot-9 sixth-year transfer from Oklahoma, keying the surge with a pair of threes from the left side. Armando Bacot, the 6-10 rebounding machine who turned an ankle late in the Duke game, was dominating inside. He finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds in 38 minutes.

At that stage, Kansas was the team that looked out of gas. Center David McCormick was in foul trouble, and outside shots weren’t finding their mark. This was not a pretty game. The winning team shot 29 of 66 from the field and was outrebounded, 55-35. But the losers were 23 of 73 from the field, including a horrific 5 of 23 on three-point attempts. Carolina’s guards, so crucial in the five victories that got them to Monday night, couldn’t find the range one last time.

“They really attacked us,…