Throughout the rally, Self called time-out after time-out — KU fans often criticized Williams for not doing the same under similar circumstances — and eventually, North Carolina cooled and Kansas ran away.

Picking a Jayhawks star was as easy as closing your eyes and pointing to a name on the stat sheet.

Aldrich stood out, swatting three shots in the first half and altering more after coming off the bench en route to his eight-point, seven-rebound night. His highlight came after KU missed just its fifth shot of the game, more than 10 minutes into the first half, and he outgrappled Hansbrough for a rebound that resulted in two free throws. That made it 33-10.

Arthur had three buckets and an assist in the first five minutes to start the runaway. Russell Robinson had five points, four assists, three steals and three turnovers over the first 20 minutes — what coach wouldn’t love that?

All that might have helped prove Williams’ theory, as he tried to deflect all the talk of himself this week: That the game would be decided by the players.

The Jayhawks were simply better.

Die-hard KU fans might have deemed it their team’s best moment since the 2003 Final Four, when Nick Collison helped dismantle Marquette 94-61 in the semifinals.

Two nights later, the Jayhawks lost to Syracuse in the finals. With talk swirling that Williams would be headed to Tobacco Road, he said on live TV that he “could give a (bleep) about North Carolina right now.”

Two weeks later, he was wearing Carolina blue and Kansas fans were seeing red.

Maybe now, they’ll be more willing to let bygones be bygones.

“I told my team that I hoped that distraction didn’t bother them, because that would be about as bad as anything you could ever have as a coach,” Williams said.

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