2012 NCAA Tournament: Bill Self And Kansas Are Headed Back To The Final Four!

Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks defeated North Carolina by a final score of 80 to 67 to secure the schools 14th Final Four. Kansas used a late run to secure the victory over the Tar Heels in a game that was a tale of two halves in a lot of ways.

The first half was a bit of a change of pace for both teams. Neither Kansas or North Carolina had been particularly explosive on the offensive end heading into this one, but both teams came out scorching hot from the field leading to a tie ball game at 47 points a piece at the intermission.

In the second half the Jayhawk defense did what they've done all tournament by buckling down and winning the game by limiting their opponent. North Carolina would only score 20 points in the second frame and despite answering most every Kansas run, they came up short on the last one.

Tyshawn Taylor came out of his slump a bit scoring 22 points in the game while Thomas Robinson secured the most outstanding player nod for the Midwest region with an 18 points, 9 rebound performance.

The Jayhawks also received a nice defensive lift from all five starters as North Carolina really had to settle for jumpers down the stretch and they just couldn't convert. It was a great game, between two historic programs and Kansas punches their ticket to the Big Easy for Bill Self's second Final Four. It's a great day to be a Jayhawk!