As I write this column early Monday evening, my deadline is less than two hours away while the NCAA Tournament championship game between Kansas and North Carolina has yet to tip off.
But whether the Tar Heels or Jayhawks ultimately became champions, the 2021-22 basketball season – one that saw not a single team banned from the tournament because of COVID-19 issues and arenas packed full after scant attendance anywhere a year ago – will be in the books.
But before we officially turn the page on a season shaped far more by the transfer portal than the annual infusion of the one-and-done freshman phenom, it seems a good time to reflect on a year that saw Kansas lose early to a Dayton team that didn’t even make the field, lose to Kentucky at home by 18 and suffer 10-point road losses to Baylor and TCU before righting itself to reach the title game. Of similar intrigue, North Carolina fell by 17 early to Tennessee, 29 to Kentucky, 28 to Miami, 22 to Wake Forest, 20 to Duke inside the Dean Smith Center and by nine at home to pitiful Pittsburgh.
Yet despite all those losses, and at least a few in embarrassing fashion, the final game of the year, the ultimate moment in college hoops, will be won by either the Jayhawks or the Tar Heels. Go figure.