The Tar Heels (29-9), of all teams, pinned the 368th and final loss on the 75-year-old Coach K, exactly four weeks after they ruined the going-away party in his final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

That loss hurt. This one stopped the coach’s last-gasp, storybook run one win away from a title game and a chance at his sixth championship. When it was over, after playing through the nip-and-tuck stretch run without a timeout, Krzyzewski walked calmly to halfcourt and shook the hand of Carolina’s rookie coach, Hubert Davis.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

So, instead of Krzyzewski going for his sixth title, on Monday, Carolina will go for its seventh. It will be coach Davis, Love, who led the Tar Heels with 28 points, and R.J. Davis, who scored 18, going against Kansas.

Saturday’s game between rivals lived up to the hype. It featured 18 lead changes and 12 ties.

Love made three more free throws down the stretch, and then it was over. Krzyzewski walked off the Superdome floor hand in hand with his wife, Mickie.

Davis, meanwhile, was crying again, much as he did last weekend when North Carolina punched its ticket to its record 21st Final Four.

“I felt like over the last two or three years , North Carolina wasn’t relevant,” said Davis, who replaced the legendary Roy Williams. “North Carolina should never be irrelevant. It should be front and center with the spotlight on them.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Kansas handles Villanova

David McCormack muscled his way to 25 points, Ochai Agbaji was nearly perfect from the field and added 21 points, and hot-shooting Kansas raced to a big early lead before withstanding every Villanova run for a 81-65 victory.

Christian Braun also had 10 points, including a key 3-pointer to ward off a comeback late in the game, as the Jayhawks (33-6) exacted a measure of revenge for a Final Four beatdown by the Wildcats four years ago in San Antonio.

Playing without injured guard Justin Moore, Villanova (31-7) watched the lone No. 1 seed to reach the semifinals score the game’s first 10 points and eventually build a 19-point cushion. And despite big nights from Collin Gillespie, Brandon Slater and Jermaine Samuels, the short-handed and undersized Wildcats never made it all the way back.

Gillespie, playing in his 156th game for the Wildcats, hit five 3-pointers and finished with 17 points, while Slater hit four 3s and had 16 points. Samuels finished with 13 points in the final game of his college career.