Kansas Basketball: 3 keys to beat North Carolina in 2022 national title game
By Bryan Mauro
Rebound
If Kansas doesn’t rebound well and does not hold the Tar Heels to one and done on the offensive end it may spell doom. The bigs for North Carolina have been outstanding on the glass and have been even better on the offensive glass.
Armando Bacot is the one player for North Carolina to focus on he has a knack for rebounding and has already secured 85 rebounds in the NCAA tournament and can get 20 rebounds easily. Keeping him off the glass is going to be critical for the Jayhawks and their chances to win the game.
David McCormack, Jalen Wilson, and Mitch Lightfoot are going to get the bulk of the minutes at the 4 and the 5 spots and they are good enough rebounders to neutralize Bacot a bit, Kansas is one of the better rebounding teams in the country and it is because every one of their players is adept at crashing the glass, they all go for rebounds and their guards Christian Braun, Ochai Agbaji and Remy Martin are some of the better rebounding guards in the country.
The only issue here is that against the other great rebounding teams they have played in the NCAA tournament they have given up double-digit offensive rebounds.
They cannot give up the offensive rebounds against the Tar Heels to win this game. North Carolina beat Duke and they upset Baylor in the NCAA tournament with their late-game offensive rebounds and used those extra possessions to milk more clock and eventually hit a dagger three or get to the free throw line.
McCormack played well against Villanova in the Final Four matchup and Jalen Wilson has been great the entire tournament and most of the year. They will both need to box out and secure the ball, or box out and let the guards get the ball to start in transition. The game will be won and lost on the glass.