Kansas needed to sweat out a wild comeback by the North Carolina Tar Heels, and Jayhawks head coach Bill Self matched a legend on Friday with a 92–89 victory.
Self tied the late Phog Allen’s all-time Kansas record for career wins at 590. A basketball Hall of Fame member, Allen coached the Jayhawks from 1907 to 1909 and 1919 to 1956, and he won one national title.
Allen built Kansas into a national power after the game’s founder, James Naismith, went 55–60 in the early years of the Jayhawks’ program. Self, who has coached the Jayhawks since 2003, has enjoyed vast success at Kansas amid national titles in 2008 and 2022 plus two other Final Four appearances.
“If [Allen] had played 30 games a year back when he was coaching for 39 years. That record, that’s 1,200 games. That record wouldn’t ever be touched,” Self added.
Kansas (2–0) came into the new season as the nation’s top-ranked team in the preseason poll, and the Jayhawks looked the part in a dominant first half. The Jayhawks led by as much as 20 points over the No. 9 Tar Heels (1–1) at the Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas.
Jayhawks senior forward K.J. Adams Jr. led the way with a team-high 14 points. Senior guard Zeke Mayo added 10 points, and he hit a pair of three-pointers to push the lead to double figures.
North Carolina rallied big in the second half, added by a 9–0 run, and a shooting drought by the Jayhawks. Tar Heels senior forward Jae’Lyn Withers gave his team the lead with 7:90 remaining with a layup.
Mayo stepped up down the stretch for the Jayhawks with a basket, a pair of three-throws, and an assist on center Hunter Dickinson’s basket with 1:17 left. Dickinson also iced the game with a free-throw on a later possession with 12 seconds left.
Kansas held the Tar Heels scoreless for the final 2:30 of the game to squeak out the win. The Jayhawks limited UNC to 42.9 percent shooting for the night.
Mayo led the Jayhawks in scoring with 21 points, and he added five rebounds and four assists. Dickinson had a double double with 20 points and 10 rebounds plus three assists and a block.
Adams finished 14 points, and senior guard Dajuan Harris rounded out the starters with 10 points. Junior guard A.J. Storr stepped up with 13 points off the bench.
UNC junior guard Seth Trimble led his team in scoring with 19 points, and he added three assists and four rebounds. Senior guard R.J. Davis posted 16 points, and he dished four assists. Tar Heels sophomore guard Elliot Cadeau scored 12 points, and Withers added 11 points.
Friday’s game marked the latest in the storied matchup between the two longtime college basketball powers. Kansas and UNC last met in 2022 for the national championship, won by Self’s Jayhawks.
The two could meet again in March, but there’s another matchup on the horizon at the very least. UNC will host Kansas in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for the first time ever in the 2025–26 season. Kansas leads the all-time series 7–6.
“Our history is so intertwined that you can’t help but respect the other, because we’re not what we are, either one of us, without the other. So it just makes it a special, special series,” Self said in Thursday’s pregame press conference.
