INDIANAPOLIS – If Baylor looks like Baylor on Saturday night on Monday night, the national championship game could be classic.
Asking it to be an email might ask too much. There is almost no addition that Gonzaga and UCLA gave us Saturday night. It was one of the biggest matches in the history of the tournament. We’re talking about the top five area ever.
The Bulldogs defeated the upset Bruins in an overtime victory of 93-90 via Jalen Suggs’ instant three-pointer to beat the buzzer. The phenomenal ending now makes the title game feel more like a pop-up than we ever thought it could be. The No. 1 overall Zags versus the No. 2 overall Bears is the first time the top-seeded teams have met since 2005 for the title.
Gonzaga-UCLA was one of the best matches in tournament history. An instant email. Eye on College Basketball repeats it all below.
Monday is now just the best possible title game we can ask for.
Let’s take a moment to focus on these Bears as they beat second-seeded Houston 78-59 in a final four-time affair, which is the second-seeded, who emerged as the rival of the two semifinals at Lucas Oil Stadium. be considered. Uh – no. Not at all. Baylor led by 25 at halftime – the fourth-largest margin in national semifinal history – and settled the rest of the night in third gear, soaring to the national championship battle.
The NCAA Tournament’s 3,500th game was one that Baylor held for the first time since 1948 in the NCAA Finals.
Baylor knew his star, Jared Butler, needed to return. He did against the Cougars. After making 25% of his three shots in his four tournament games until Saturday, Butler scored 4-out-5 from outside the arc, leading the Bears by 17 points.
“The first half he put on the roll,” Bears coach Scott Drew said. “People did him a good job. The second half he did well not to force things. And other people got going. And that’s kind of what we did all year is to get warm. to shake hands and share the ball. ”
Davion Mitchell, a new Defensive Player of the Year award he received the day before, once again reminded himself that he is more than the best defensive defender in college basketball. Mitchell, the most accurate 3-point shooter on the most accurate three-point shooting team, was 3 to 6 from deep and personally had more assists (11) than Houston had as a team (10). Mitchell also had no turnover. According to ESPN Stats & Info, no player has had at least ten assistants and no turnover in a Final Four game since 1987.
“Baylor is clearly the best team we’ve ever played,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “This is the best team I’ve seen in seven years in Houston.”
They emptied the benches in a Final Four match. All you need to know.
Here’s how it has curled up for the Bears over the past two weeks: they look unharmed against Hartford, encouraged against Wisconsin, body-blown – then declarative – against Villanova, and challenged, but ready against Arkansas.
Saturday night was a new level. Great – not good; great – Baylor is back.
“The first half was about as good as any team could play against Houston,” Drew said. “So I definitely think – if we are not where we were, I can not see the difference.”
The Bears have never before beaten a team beaten as high as No. 2. Houston allowed Baylor more points per possession (1.34) on Saturday than it had against a team longer than four years. Baylor shot 58% of the 2-point and 46% of the 3-point. While many (understandably) made a big deal out of Houston’s offensive rebounding skill, Baylor grabbed 48% of his miss, at 41% for Houston. Baylor was a champion in form for nearly a decade under Drew, and since 2013-14 has topped the top 10 (and often in the top three) of the offensive rebound percentage.
“It’s starting to feel like we’re back where we were before the break,” Butler said. “And it’s great that it’s the right time. And we thought it was the worst possible thing when we stopped and it was a three-week break. But I think it works perfectly for us. And we can do a lot of things. “And we are built differently, and we just have to finish it.”
It looked 40 minutes better against Houston than Gonzaga against UCLA no. 11, it is clear. That rough, unbeaten Baylor Bears team we saw from November to early February – before a COVID break put it amber for three weeks – shook off the last flakes of its quarantine skin and reappeared on the biggest stage in college. basketball as a viable threat to steal Gonzaga’s glory.
So we are ready for the championship game we have been craving since Thanksgiving: Gonzaga vs. Baylor. The sport’s top two teams that had to play each other in this very city, four months ago just four blocks from Lucas Oil Stadium. COVID canceled it.
Now that we’re here, it’s even better that they did not meet in the regular season. The one-and-only meeting will be for a title that is two years in the making. It was worth the wait and sacrifice. Gonzaga and Baylor have not only been the top two teams this season, but the top two teams over the past two seasons. The teams are along 115-8.
“Since 2008, we have won 18 or more,” Drew said. “And we and Kansas are the only two Power Fives that could do that. We were good throughout. We just could not reach a final four or national championship.”
When GU and BU meet on Monday night, Baylor will be more than a worthy opponent. The Bears will be the best team Gonzaga has faced in years. (UCLA included!) This is exactly what Gonzaga deserves: the number 2 team in the sport, more enemy than foil. Given their combined three-point shooting accuracy (41.8%), Baylor’s four-headed guard attack from Butler, Mitchell, MaCio Teague and Adam Flagler should be considered one of the best backfield attacks of the past 15 years in college basketball, and probably longer.
“(Mark Gonzaga coach) Few and I joked when the game was canceled and we went to the arena and we held a press conference and said the game was canceled and whatnot,” Drew said. ‘And when we drove back, we were like, you know, if we were to play this game in the Final Four or the championship game, it sounds like a better idea. So, of course, that was the goal for both of us. ‘
College basketball deserves it. We all do. College hoops was the only major American sport to cancel its 2020 championships (men and women). The NBA ends in an Orlando bubble. Major League Baseball had a shortened schedule. The NFL, blessed with happy timing, continued with minimal brackets. The Masters and most other golf and tennis courses were delayed, but eventually played.
We have not had a national championship in men’s and women’s basketball for the past two years. Now the wait is over. For men, it could not be better than that. This is an unusual thing: top two teams meeting in the national championship game. The fickle bracket does not so often afford such gifts. The Lucas Oil Stadium is the stage of the first national championship match between preseason no. 1 and no. 2-teams since 2000-01, when Duke beat Arizona. This is the first national championship match between the teams that overall no. 1 and no. 2 since North Carolina was selected against Illinois in 2005.
And after Gonzaga had to navigate against UCLA, there is all the more reason to believe that the unbeaten run can or will end. Baylor are 6-0 this season against top 10 teams. There were 16 teams played that reached the 2021 NCAA Tournament and went 14-2 away.
Will the Zags contract and recover, or are the wounds too deep for Baylor to strike? Baylor will bend.
Against Houston, even the little things seem bigger. Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua scored double figures (11 points) for the first time in 2021. Teague’s six assistants against the Coogs were more than he ever had in a Baylor uniform. Baylor’s 23 assistants were the most on a Final Four stage since UNLV in 1990.
On April 5, Gonzaga-Baylor will expire after four months. The day it happened, a few people said, ‘I absolutely think we’ll find a way to see these two teams against each other later in the season.
“We’ll find a way to play it sometime,” he added.
Hopeful. And prophetic. Come Monday, important.
It all comes together in a magical way that only the NCAA Tournament can offer.
Baylor’s back and better than ever. Gonzaga still holds an unbeaten record and is another victory of sports immortality. Consider the wait. Consider the interests. Consider the programs and what is needed to reach this point. Consider Saturday night. Consider Jalen Suggs and that shot.
We have reached the perfect end of an imperfect season.