Men’s National Championship Game Thread

The national title game for men’s basketball starts tonight at 6:20 pm PT on TBS as #1 seed Kansas (-4) takes on #8 seed North Carolina. The Tar Heels are looking to become just the 2nd #8 seed to win the tournament joining 1985 Villanova. Despite everyone thinking this season was Coach K’s farewell tour, it may actually be Roy Williams’. A year ago this week Williams suddenly retired and now he has the 2 schools where he starred as a coach squaring off in the finals against one another.

Follow along during the game in the comments with other Husky fans watching to anxiously find out who won their March Madness pools. In the UWDP pool the winner regardless of the outcome is going to be “Stephen” who picked Kansas to win it all but also got 3 of the Final 4 correct (had UCLA instead of North Carolina). “Toller” is currently in 5th place but will move up to 2nd if the Jayhawks prevail.

There’s the business. Quick story time. My wife’s grandfather was a Kansas alum. And not just any Kansas alum. He earned a football scholarship to KU at quarterback and picked them over Oklahoma when Phog Allen told him he could also play on the basketball team. He was a garbage time bench player but was a member of the 1952 national title team led by Clyde Lovellette that also included future UNC hall of fame coach Dean Smith. He remained a lifelong Kansas fan. Unfortunately he passed away this fall. My father-in-law and I submitted a bracket in his honor in their annual pool which had 130+ submissions this year and of course had Kansas winning it all. If the Jayhawks take care of business then the bracket will end up tied for first. The winnings will be going to the scholarship fund he started which go towards minority students at the Kansas business school.

So you can probably guess who I’ll be rooting for tonight.