Kentucky beats Kansas for NCAA tourney crown

(AP) NEW ORLEANS - No matter where Anthony Davis and his buddies go to make their millions, their ol' Kentucky home will long remember this championship season.

The Wildcats hit the jackpot with their lottery picks Monday night, ignoring Davis' bad shooting night and parlaying a roster full of NBA talent into a 67-59 victory over Kansas for the team's eighth national title — and its first since 1998.

The one-and-doners did it in a wire-to-wire victory — a little dicey at the end — to cap a season in which anything less than bringing a title back to the Bluegrass State would have been a downer. They led coach John Calipari to his first title in four trips to the Final Four with three different schools.

Doron Lamb, a sophomore with first-round-draft-pick possibilities, led the Wildcats (38-2) with 22 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers that put them up by 16 with 10 minutes left.

The Jayhawks (32-7), kings of the comeback all season, fought to the finish and trimmed that deficit to five with 1:37 left. But Kentucky made five free throws down the stretch to seal the win

Davis' fellow lottery prospect, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, was another headliner, creating space for himself to score all 11 of his points in the first half.

Davis, meanwhile, might have had the most dominating six-point night in the history of college basketball. He finished with 16 rebounds, six blocks, five assists and three steals — and made his only field goal with 5:13 left in the game. It was a surefire illustration of how the 6-foot-10 freshman can exert his will on a game even on a rare night when the shot isn't falling.

Helps when you've got teammates like this. Davis is the likely first pick in the draft should he choose to come out, and Kidd-Gilchrist won't be far behind. Another first-round prospect, freshman Marquis Teague, had 14 points. And yet another, sophomore Terrence Jones, had nine points, seven rebounds and two of Kentucky's 11 blocked shots.

Kansas also has a lottery pick in AP All-American Thomas Robinson. But he was harassed all night by Davis and Jones and finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds on a frustrating evening nonetheless.

The Jayhawks won the "B" League this year, as Calipari avenged a final-game loss to Bill Self back in 2008 when Cal was coaching the Tigers. Not a bad season in Lawrence, though, considering where KU began.

Kansas lost four of its top five scorers off last year's roster. There were times early in the season when Self and his old buddy and mentor, Larry Brown, would stand around at practices and wonder if this was a team that could even make the tournament. It did. Won its eighth straight conference title, too.

None of this, however, was for the faint of heart. The Jayhawks trailed by double digits in three of their five tournament games leading to the final and played every game down to the wire. They fell behind by 18 late in the first half of this one and this time, there was no big comeback to be made; not against these guys.

Davis went only 1-for-10 from the floor, but he realized early this was no shoot-first night for him at the Superdome. Sporting his near-unibrow, which the UK Wildcat mascot also decided to paste on, he endured the worst shooting night of a short college career in which he makes 64 percent. No big deal. He set the tone early on defense, swatting Robinson's shot twice, grabbing rebounds, making pretty bounce passes for assists.

Early in the second half, he made a steal that also could have been an assist, knocking the ball out of Robinson's hands and directly to Jones, who dunked for a 46-30 lead.

Then, finally. With 5:13 left in the game, he spotted up for a 15-foot jumper from the baseline that swished. The crowd, a little more full of Kentucky fans than Kansas, went crazy. If this guy only stays one year and only makes one shot, they're fine with that.

It's the new normal at Kentucky, where Adolph Rupp set a standard, Rick Pitino lived up to it for a while, then Calipari — hardly the buttoned-down type — was hired to bring back the glory.

He goes for the best player, no matter what their long-term goals.

Normally, the prospect of losing all those players in one swoop would have people thinking about a tough rebuilding year.

But Cal has mastered the art of rebuilding on the fly.

He's the coach who brings in the John Walls, Brandon Knights and Derrick Roses (at Memphis) for cups of coffee, lets them sharpen up their resumes, then happily says goodbye when it becomes obvious there's nothing left for them to do in school.

The coach won't apologize for the way he recruits or how he runs his program. Just playing by the rules as they're set up, he says, even if he doesn't totally agree with them. Because he refuses to promise minutes or shots to any recruit and demands teamwork out of all of them, he says he comes by these players honestly.

He has produced nine first-round picks in the last four drafts with a few more coming. This latest group will have an NCAA title in tow and the everlasting love of a fan base that bleeds basketball.

Past NCAA Men's Basketball Championship final scores -

2012 - Kentucky 67, Kansas 59

2011 - Connecticut 53, Butler 41

2010 - Duke 61, Butler 59

2009 - North Carolina 89, Michigan State 72

2008 - Kansas 75, Memphis 68, OT

2007 - Florida 84, Ohio State 75

2006 - Florida 73, UCLA 57

2005 - North Carolina 75, Illinois 70

2004 - Connecticut 82, Georgia Tech 73

2003 - Syracuse 81, Kansas 78

2002 - Maryland 64, Indiana 52

2001 - Duke 82, Arizona 72

2000 - Michigan State 89, Florida 76

1999 - Connecticut 77, Duke 74

1998 - Kentucky 78, Utah 69

1997 - Arizona 84, Kentucky 79, OT

1996 - Kentucky 76, Syracuse 67

1995 - UCLA 89, Arkansas 78

1994 - Arkansas 76, Duke 72

1993 - North Carolina 77, Michigan 71

1992 - Duke 71, Michigan 51

1991 - Duke 72, Kansas 65

1990 - UNLV 103, Duke 73

1989 - Michigan 80, Seton Hall 79, OT

1988 - Kansas 83, Oklahoma 79

1987 - Indiana 74, Syracuse 73

1986 - Louisville 72, Duke 69

1985 - Villanova 66, Georgetown 64

1984 - Georgetown 84, Houston 75

1983 - N.C. State 54, Houston 52

1982 - North Carolina 63, Georgetown 62

1981 - Indiana 63, North Carolina 50

1980 - Louisville 59, UCLA 54

1979 - Michigan State 75, Indiana State 64

1978 - Kentucky 94, Duke 88

1977 - Marquette 67, North Carolina 59

1976 - Indiana 86, Michigan 68

1975 - UCLA 92, Kentucky 85

1974 - N.C. State 76, Marquette 64

1973 - UCLA 87, Memphis State 66

1972 - UCLA 81, Florida State 76

1971 - UCLA 68, Villanova 62

1970 - UCLA 80, Jacksonville 69

1969 - UCLA 92, Purdue 72

1968 - UCLA 78, North Carolina 55

1967 - UCLA 79, Dayton 64

1966 - Texas Western 72, Kentucky 65

1965 - UCLA 91, Michigan 80

1964 - UCLA 98, Duke 83

1963 - Loyola of Chicago 60, Cincinnati 58, OT

1962 - Cincinnati 71, Ohio State 59

1961 - Cincinnati 70, Ohio State 65, OT

1960 - Ohio State 75, California 55

1959 - California 71, West Virginia 70

1958 - Kentucky 84, Seattle 72

1957 - North Carolina 54, Kansas 53, 3OT

1956 - San Francisco 83, Iowa 71

1955 - San Francisco 77, La Salle 63

1954 - La Salle 92, Bradley 76

1953 - Indiana 69, Kansas 68

1952 - Kansas 80, St. John's 63

1951 - Kentucky 68, Kansas State 58

1950 - CCNY 71, Bradley 68

1949 - Kentucky 46, Oklahoma A&M 36

1948 - Kentucky 58, Baylor 42

1947 - Holy Cross 58, Oklahoma 47

1946 - Oklahoma A&M 43, North Carolina 40

1945 - Oklahoma A&M 49, NYU 45

1944 - Utah 42, Dartmouth 40, OT

1943 - Wyoming 46, Georgetown 34

1942 - Stanford 53, Dartmouth 38

1941 - Wisconsin 39, Washington State 34

1940 - Indiana 60, Kansas 42

1939 - Oregon 46, Ohio State 34