As he sat just a few rows behind the Kansas bench at the Caesars Superdome on Monday night, Mario Chalmers tried not to squirm.<\/p>\n
The program he had led to the 2008 basketball national championship had entered halftime with a 15-point deficit. Chalmers, the hero of that team who hit a 3-pointer to send the game to overtime in a win against Memphis, hoped the Jayhawks would remember what was still possible.<\/p>\n
“I just thought, ‘Keep believing,'” Chalmers said after Kansas’ 72-69 come-from-behind win over North Carolina. “The same thing Coach [Bill] Self told us [in 2008] was to keep believing. And I knew they’d be able to pull it out in the end.”<\/p>\n
The line between the joy of a hard-fought victory and the agony of almost is thin. Self, who won his second national title on Monday, knows too well after a 2012 loss to Kentucky in the championship game and a lopsided defeat against Villanova in the 2018 Final Four. But his first national title team with Chalmers also had been down in the second half, albeit in a more dire and urgent scenario, so he challenged his 2022 players in the locker room.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Entering this season, Kansas had come back from 15 down at half to win a game just twice in their history.<\/p>\n In January, they did it to beat Kansas State. Last night, they did it to win a national championship. pic.twitter.com\/o62169owxo<\/a><\/p>\n — ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 5, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n