Let the record show that in what may be his only college season, Malik Monk made Kentucky's last shot in both games he played against North Carolina.
A three-point basket, giving Monk 47 points for the game, settled December's 103-100 Wildcat victory in Las Vegas. North Carolina coach Roy Williams hoped before Sunday's rematch in Memphis that "we can get someone in the same time zone as Malik, to keep him from doing what he did last time."
Monk scored 35 fewer points at FedExForum but qualified as a potential hero with two clutch three-pointers in crunch time. Alas, it was not to be for Monk or the Wildcats.
Against a team that won an NCAA title 35 years ago on a freshman's clutch basket, Kentucky had the Christian Laettner thing happen all over again.
A quarter-century after losing an overtime region final to Duke on a Laettner jumper, Kentucky got stopped short of the Final Four again on an opponent's last shot.
One major difference: Whereas Laettner was the best player for the defending NCAA champion in 1992, Luke Maye's name didn't mean much to the casual basketball fan until early Sunday evening in Memphis. How quickly perceptions can change.
With seconds ticking away and the game tied, Maye, a sophomore forward, took a pass from junior guard Theo Pinson and nailed the wing jumper that won it for the Tar Heels, 75-73.
Thus officially was Maye Day declared in North Carolina, and the Tar Heels dispatched to Phoenix for the school's record 20th NCAA Final Four appearance and second in a row.
Kentucky, meanwhile, sits out the final weekend of college basketball for the second year in a row, five years since the school's eighth and last NCAA title.
Dad-gum, as Roy Williams might say.
For those of us who spend more than the allotted three seconds in Memory Lane, this one had parallels galore to past tournament classics.
• Raise your hand if you envisioned Luke Maye playing the Michael Jordan role for the Tar Heels in this one. Jordan was a star in the making before he made the basket that beat Georgetown in the 1982 final, giving coach Dean Smith his first NCAA title after two decades of trying. Maye, with one career start in two seasons at Chapel Hill, scored 31 points over the weekend in Memphis (14 with his first career double-double Friday against Butler, then 17 with the SportsCenter moment against Kentucky).
• Like Laettner in that famous game at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Maye wore No. 32. What should Kentucky have known, and when should it have known it?
• Monk's final basket, making it 73-all, goes unrewarded like that of the tying shot by North Carolina's Marcus Paige in the national-title game last year. Kris Jenkins' buzzer-beating three for Villanova on the ensuing possession is the only basket from that game anyone remembers.
In Kentucky lore, Monk becomes the new Sean Woods, whose off-balance shot off the glass gave the Wildcats a 104-103 lead over Duke until Laettner made the last two of his 31 points in a game that he sank 10 of 10 from the field and 10 of 10 free throws.
• Kentucky, with 0.3 seconds left after Maye's basket, sailed one out of bounds from the opposing baseline, North Carolina then making an inbounds flip to end the game. The man sitting beside Jim Nantz and Bill Raftery on the CBS broadcast team once made a similar pass accurately. Grant Hill got the assist on Laettner's basket against Kentucky in '92, a 75-foot strike from baseline to foul line after then-Wildcat coach Rick Pitino declined to defend the inbounds pass.
• What would an instant classic be without some delicious second-guessing on both sides. The great might-have-been of this game was a time-out neither coach called after Monk's basket tied it with 7.2 seconds left.
Roy Williams' nature is to let them play, even with the game on the line. Thus North Carolina was in attack mode on the possession that culminated with Pinson's pass to Maye for the basket that put the Tar Heels in Blue Heaven.
A time-out, Williams reasoned, would give Kentucky a chance to set up its defense. Still, one wonders if Luke Maye would have been UNC's first option.
On the other bench, John Calipari watched -- and winced.
"I probably should have called time-out," said the Kentucky coach. "It entered my mind, but they got that (pass) in so quick, I couldn't get to anybody to do it. I needed to stop that right there."
Some random thoughts, second thoughts and second-guesses in the cooling-off period:
• North Carolina, down by five points late in both games, went on a combined 24-0 run against two Southeastern Conference teams (12-0 against both Arkansas and Kentucky) on consecutive Sunday afternoons.
• After South Carolina zapped Florida in the East Region, North Carolina over Kentucky prevented some quick-witted headline writer from cranking out "S-E-C it now".
• Would anyone watch a border war (North Carolina vs. South Carolina, Gonzaga vs. Oregon) in the championship game Monday night?
• Making the Final Four is a bigger deal for South Carolina basketball than back-to-back NIT championships (2005 and 2006), wouldn't you say?
• Wonder if Kansas State would like to have Frank Martin (South Carolina) or Dana Altman (Oregon) back?
• What would Bill Self's legacy at Kansas be had a Calipari-coached Memphis team made some clutch free throws or Mario Chalmers' "miracle" shot not fallen for the Jayhawks in the 2008 national final?
• Wonder if any team has beaten Duke and North Carolina in the same NCAA tournament? South Carolina has that chance.
• Razorback fans, you can breathe now: Malik Monk (Bentonville via Lepanto) and Florida's KeVaughn Allen (North Little Rock) have finished their seasons. Unless you hold a grudge against Dana Altman for not honoring his 2007 commitment to Arkansas.
Sports on 03/28/2017