“Yeah! Let’s go!” he screamed after one especially dominating move in the paint.

“I’ve been told the least important score is the halftime score, so I wasn’t worried that we were down,” May said. “I didn’t play well in the first half, but Coach told me, ’We’re not going to stop coming to you.’ They had faith in me.”

Michigan State made only 10 of 34 shots in the second half, finishing at just under 34 percent. Maurice Ager typified the Spartans’ offensive woes, leading the way with 24 points but finishing just 6 of 18 from the field.

The final is a matchup between two sentimental coaching favorites. The mother of Illinois’ Bruce Weber died last month during the Big Ten tournament. Then there’s Williams, who never quite could take Kansas all the way.

Williams, who’s willing to put his emotions on display for all to see, went through a gut-wrenching decision to leave the Jayhawks when the Carolina called him home two years ago.

Williams is a Tar Heel through and through — a North Carolina native, he went to school in Chapel Hill, sent his two children to school there and learned the coaching ropes as an assistant to Dean Smith.

When Carolina first called, Williams couldn’t bring himself to leave Kansas. But he finally made the move that always seemed his destiny when the Tar Heels came back to him in 2003, eager for the right man — the only man — to rebuild a program that fell into disarray under Matt Doherty.

Now, just three years removed from a 20-loss debacle and with Smith watching from the stands, North Carolina put itself just one victory away from its first national championship since 1993.

Williams’ last trip to the title game was his last hurrah at Kansas. The Jayhawks lost 81-78 to Syracuse, a potentially tying 3-pointer blocked in the waning seconds.

Michigan State was no tournament neophyte, reaching its fourth Final Four in seven years under Izzo. The Spartans won it all in 2000.

But not this year.

“We just didn’t have enough weapons,” Izzo said. “It’s going to be a great championship game with two No. 1 seeds. It’s probably the way it’s supposed to be.”

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