Kansas Jayhawks secure spot in men's basketball national final, eliminate Villanova Wildcats

NEW ORLEANS — Despite his team's arrival as the only No. 1 seed in the Final Four, Bill Self's pursuit of his second national championship had been tucked into the corner of a national semifinals that had minimized the weekend's opening act and any storylines attached to it.

And even if the chatter about Duke and North Carolina meeting for the first time in the NCAA tournament in Mike Krzyzewski's final season had demanded most of the pageantry in New Orleans, Villanova head coach Jay Wright's attempt to win his second national title without injured star Justin Moore had made the Wildcats an underdog that the masses could support.

After Kansas' 81-65 victory over Villanova on Saturday, however, there is a new narrative to consider in New Orleans: Kansas could be the best team in America.

The four-point favorite had started the game with the expectation that it would defeat its short-handed opponent. But Kansas advanced to the national title game on Monday with a performance that even Villanova at full strength might not have stalled.

With 9:28 to play in the first half, two Kansas players — David McCormack (11 points) and Ochai Agbaji (12 points) — had either outscored or matched Villanova's 11 points. With Moore injured, Wright started Collin Gillespie, Caleb Daniels, Brandon Slater, Jermaine Samuels and Eric Dixon, a lineup that he'd used in only limited action in past games. That group had averaged just 88 points per 100 possessions, per hooplens.com.

From the start of the game, the impact of Moore's absence in a rotation that relies on just six players was clear. Kansas scored the first 10 points in the game. The Jayhawks also made seven of their first 13 3-point attempts.

McCormack's size and strength gave Villanova