Kansas Runs Past Villanova to Get to the N.C.A.A. Final, Avenging a 2018 Loss

Written by sidhanta

When Kansas Coach Bill Self sat down in recent days to look at the film of his last trip to the Final Four, he could not stomach watching more than 12 minutes.

It is easy to imagine his gut-churning, his palms getting clammy and his head starting to spin.

“I get tics whenever I think about it,” Self said of the 2018 semifinal in which the highlights may have well ended after Kansas scored the opening basket. 

The game devolved into a convincing defeat to Villanova, which would go on to win the national championship.

Self and a handful of players quietly took that whipping and made sure it did not happen again on Saturday, surging to an early lead and fending off the Wildcats down the stretch for an 81-65 victory.

Kansas will play the winner of Saturday night’s other semifinal between North Carolina and Duke on Monday night, allowing the Jayhawks to vanquish another memory 

The Jayhawks moved on thanks to a near-flawless performance from Ochai Agbaji, their fifth-year senior guard, who scored 21 points and made all six 3-pointers he attempted 

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