After rolling through their Final Four games, the Kansas Jayhawks will face the Memphis Tigers in the NCAA men’s basketball championship game Monday night.
This season, the Jayhawks won a school-record 36 games including the Big 12 Tournament Championship. The Tigers are the first men’s team ever to win 38 games in a single college season, with their only loss coming at home to then No. 2 Tennessee.
Kansas leads the all-time series against Memphis, 3-2, but the Jayhawks know that history doesn’t mean much in games like these.
“We know we’ve got another step to take Monday night,” Jayhawk guard Sherron Collins told ESPN. “It’s going to be a great matchup. [Memphis] plays fast, we play fast.”
The Tigers have outscored their opponents by 18.6 points a game and dominate the boards.
“I think this game will come down to our bench players and Robert Dozier,” said Memphis Head Coach John Calipari.
Kansas is 2-5 in national title games, winning in 1952 and 1988. For Jayhawk Head Coach Bill Self, the trip is his first to an NCAA championship after tough losses in previous years.
“I feel great,” Self said after the win against North Carolina. “We are going to enjoy this win for another hour or so, and then we are going to get back to business preparing for the championship against Memphis.”