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Michael Conroy / Associated Press
The showdown for the 2021 NCAA men’s basketball championship game is officially set after Saturday’s Four Finals action at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Baylor was unmoved by Houston’s vaunted defense in the first game of the day, building a 25-point lead in the break on the way to an uneven 78-59 victory. Bears made it to the Final Four in 2010 and 2012, but fell to the eventual champion both times. They will be playing for the school’s first national championship.
This was followed by the tournament game.
Gonzaga entered the game as an overwhelming favorite against No. 11 seed UCLA, but it was a round-trip battle that went into overtime and ended dramatically when Jalen Suggs hit home a three-point buzzer for a 93-90 win.
Let’s take a quick look at the biggest winners and losers of the day, in addition to what the scoreboard showed after the final bell rang.
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Jared ButlerMichael Conroy / Associated Press
If there was a rule of mercy in college basketball, Saturday would be the time to apply it.
Baylor Bears hit 57.1 percent of the ground by dropping eight of the 15 three-point attempts during the first half, and the game was essentially out of reach before the halftime bell rang.
With a 45-20 margin on the scoreboard at halftime, Houston was buried.
Jared Butler, of the first team, the All-American Jared Butler, almost overcame the Cougars on his own with 17 points from 4 out of 5 shots beyond the arc in the first half, and the Bears recorded assists in 12 of their 16 field shots made in the total effort of the team.
The Cougars defense was the catalyst for their race for the Final Four, but Baylor easily separated it on the way to an easy victory.
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Darron Cummings / Associated Press
The Houston Cougars came into play on Saturday with one of the most precarious saves in the country, adding just 57.6 points per game.
They have kept their opponents below 60 points on 19 different occasions this year, and only twice have they yielded more than 70 points in one game.
None of that mattered against Baylor.
The Bears threw them out of the gym, hitting 52.7 percent of the ground and 45.8 percent beyond the arc on the way for a 78-point attack.
The only team to score more points against the Cougars this year was East Carolina, in a 82-73 head-scratching defeat, and no opponent had shot better than 49.1% of the ground.
It was a bad night for a team that relies heavily on their defense to bear the load, but credits Baylor’s attack for finding other equipment.
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Michael Conroy / Associated Press
Baylor began the 17-0 season before an outbreak of COVID-19 closed things down for three weeks in early February.
Upon returning, the Bears fought with the state of Iowa before suffering their first defeat to Kansas, and fell to the state of Oklahoma in the big 12 tournament.
Despite the convincing victories over Wisconsin (76-63), Villanova (62-51) and Arkansas (81-72) to reach the Final Four, they never looked like the bona fide title contender they looked like before the COVID.
Until Saturday.
The Bears played an excellent defense, kicked the three-point ball with deadly accuracy (11 of 24), and was led by prominent guard trio Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell and MaCio Teague at both ends of the court.
Everything was going well against Houston and, for the first time in months, this team looked like a real threat to be the last team to resist in March Madness.
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Johnny JuzangDarron Cummings / Associated Press
UCLA Bruins was the fifth number 11 in the history of the NCAA tournament to reach the Final Four.
See how these teams fared:
- 1986 LSU: lost 87-77 vs. No. 2 Louisville
- 2006 George Mason: lost 73-58 vs. No. 3 Florida
- 2011 VCU: lost 70-62 vs. No. 8 Butler
- 2018 Loyola-Chicago: lost 69-57 to No. 3 Michigan
None of these teams can compare to what this year’s UCLA team did.
The 2011 VCU team also took the field with a victory for the First Four, but none of the teams mentioned above faced a steamroller like Gonzaga. In fact, none of them faced a # 1 seed in Final Four, although LSU, George Mason and VCU went through a # 1 seed to get there.
In a season in which Gonzaga won double digits in all but one game, UCLA pushed the Bulldogs to the limit, matching them blow by blow all night.
This Bruins team is coming home, but it will always be remembered as the best number 11 of all time.
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Darron Cummings / Associated Press
How do you call someone a loser in what was arguably the most fun and balanced college basketball game of the year?
There were 19 changes of lead and 15 draws.
The Bulldogs’ biggest advantage was seven points.
The Bruins’ biggest advantage was six points.
From the moment UCLA guard Tyger Campbell hit a three-point ball with 10:31 remaining in the second half to make a 66-62 game, no one led by more than five points the rest of the way until the end of the regulation and over time.
The Bruins were sent off at a bell, but they can keep their heads up knowing that they gave the overall tournament team’s No. 1 consensus everything it could do in a year when the Bulldogs crushed everyone in their path.
This will be talked about for a long time.
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AJ Mast / Associated Press
The 2020-21 basketball season has generally been a cake walk for the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
They entered Saturday’s game with an average winning margin of 23.1 points per game and outperformed their first four opponents in the NCAA tournament by 96 points combined.
In addition to the five-point victory over West Virginia on December 2, they have not really been tested.
In a shuttle thriller, they have proven repeatedly that they are able to take a punch and respond, and that will be important against a Baylor team that was firing at all cylinders in a burst victory.
Jalen Suggs’ bell is what will be remembered, but it was a total team effort.
Drew Timme made it into extra time after going through problems, Joel Ayayi scored 22 points, the best of his career, and the defense made some big stops when it mattered.
Undoubtedly, the biggest question around Gonzaga was how he would deal with any appearance of adversity after rolling out for much of the year, and although they doubled over the limit on Saturday night, they didn’t break.
The two best teams in the country are still standing, which should be a fantastic game on Monday night.