INDIANAPOLIS – If Monday night Baylor looks like Saturday night Baylor, the national championship game could be classic.
Asking for it to be an epic can be asking too much. There is almost no topping that Gonzaga and UCLA gave us on Saturday night. This was one of the biggest games in the history of the tournament. We are talking about the territory of the best five of all time.
The Bulldogs overcame concerned Bruins in a 93-90 overtime victory via Jalen Suggs’ instant 3-point stopwatch – to win the bell. That phenomenal ending now makes the title game feel more like a throw up, more than we ever thought it would be able to be. The number 1 of the general classification Zags against the number 2 of the general classification Bears will mark the first time that the teams with the best classification have met for the title since 2005.
Monday is now just the best possible title fight we could ask for.
Let’s focus on these Bears for a moment, while they rocked and then said goodbye to runner-up Houston 78-59 in a Final Four event on Saturday night that was billed as the most competitive of the two semifinals at Lucas Oil Stadium. Oh no. No way. Baylor led 25 at the break – the fourth largest margin in the history of the national semifinal – and settled in third for the rest of the night, sliding into the national championship game.
The 3,500 game of the NCAA Tournament was what led Baylor to the NCAA final for the first time since 1948.
Baylor knew he needed his star, Jared Butler, to return. He did against the cougars. After making 25% pitches from 3 in his four tournament games before Saturday, Butler went 4 out of 5 beyond the arc and led the Bears with 17 points.
“He was rolling in the first half,” said Bears coach Scott Drew. “People did a good job of finding him. In the second half, he did a great job, not forcing things. And other people moved on. And this is what we have been doing all year long is to feed the hot hand. and share the ball. ”
Davion Mitchell, newcomer to the Defensive Player of the Year award he received the day before, once again recalled why he is more than the best blocking defender in college basketball. Mitchell, the most accurate 3-point shooter in the most accurate 3-point shooting team, hit 3 in 6 deep and had more assists in person (11) than Houston as a team (10). Mitchell also had no turnover. According to ESPN Stats & Info, no player has had at least 10 assists and no turnarounds in a Four Finals competition since 1987.
“Baylor is clearly the best team we’ve ever played,” said Houston coach Kelvin Sampson. “This is the best team I have seen in the seven years that I have been in Houston.”
They emptied the seats in a Final Four game. All you need to know.
So, this is how it has been rolled up for the Bears for the past two weeks: they seemed carefree against Hartford, encouraged against Wisconsin, devastated – then declarative – against Villanova and challenged-but-balanced against Arkansas.
Saturday night was a new level. Great – not good; great – Baylor is back.
“That first half was as good as any team could play against Houston,” said Drew. “So, I definitely think – if we’re not where we were, I can’t see the difference.”
The Bears had never beaten a team as tall as No. 2 before. Houston awarded Baylor more points for possession (1.34) on Saturday than against a team for more than four years. Baylor hit 58% in the 2-point range and 46% in the 3-point range. Although many (understandably) made a big deal with Houston’s offensive rebound ability, Baylor grabbed 48% of his mistakes against 41% for Houston. Baylor has been a master in form for almost a decade under Drew, ranking in the top 10 (and often in the top three) in percentage of offensive rebounds since 2013-14.
“It’s starting to look like we’re back where we were before the break,” said Butler. “And it’s great that this is 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 worked perfectly for us. And we can overcome a lot of things. And we are built differently. , and we just have to finish. “
It looked better for 40 minutes against Houston than Gonzaga against UCLA No. 11, that’s clear. That unbeaten and unbeaten Baylor Bears team that we saw from November until the beginning of February – before a COVID break put him in amber for three weeks – eliminated the final flakes from his quarantine skin and resurfaced on the biggest basketball college stage as a viable threat to steal Gonzaga’s glory.
So, we’re ready for the championship game we’ve been wanting since Thanksgiving: Gonzaga vs. Baylor. The two best sports teams to face in this same city, just four blocks from Lucas Oil Stadium, four months ago. COVID canceled that.
Now that we’re here, it’s even better that they didn’t meet in the regular season. The single meeting will be for a title disputed for two years. It was worth the wait and sacrifice. Gonzaga and Baylor were not only the two best teams this season, they were the two best teams in the past two seasons. The teams are 115-8 combined.
“Since 2008, we’ve won 18 or more,” said Drew. “And we and Kansas are the only two Power Fives to do that. We’ve been doing consistently good. We just haven’t made it to a Final Four or a national championship.”
When GU and BU meet on Monday night, Baylor will be more than a worthy opponent. Bears will be the best team Gonzaga has faced in years. (Including UCLA!) They are exactly what Gonzaga deserves: the second team in the sport, more of an opponent than an opponent. Given its collective 3-point shooting accuracy (41.8%), Baylor’s four-headed guard attack from Butler, Mitchell, MaCio Teague and Adam Flagler should be rated as one of the best backcourt attacks of the past 15 years in college basketball, and probably more.
“(Gonzaga coach, Mark) Few and I joked when the game was canceled and we went to the arena and did a press conference saying the game was canceled and everything,” said Drew. “And while we were coming back, we were, like, you know, if we end up playing this game in the Final Four or the championship game, it seems like a better idea. So that was obviously the goal for both of us.”
College basketball deserves that. We all do. College hoops was the only major American sport to have its 2020 championships (men’s and women’s) canceled. The NBA ended in an Orlando bubble. The Major League Baseball had a condensed schedule. The NFL, blessed with lucky timing, started with a minimum of hiccups. The Masters and most other golf and tennis majors were delayed, but ended up being played.
We haven’t had a national men’s and women’s basketball championship in two years. Now that wait is over. On the side of men, it couldn’t be better than that. It is an unusual thing: the first two teams meeting in the national championship game. The fickle support does not offer such gifts as often. Lucas Oil Stadium will host the first national championship game between pre-season teams 1 and 2 since 2000-01, when Duke beat Arizona. It is the first national championship game between teams sown in first and second place overall since North Carolina against Illinois in 2005.
And after what Gonzaga had to face against UCLA, there is more reason to believe that the unbeaten record may, or will, end. Baylor is 6-0 against the top 10 teams qualified this season. 16 teams were played that made the 2021 NCAA Tournament and went 14-2.
Will the Zags recover and recover, or are the wounds too deep for Baylor to attack? Baylor will walk flexing.
Against Houston, even the small things seem bigger. Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua hit double digits (11 points) for the first time in 2021. Teague’s six assists against the Coogs were more than he ever had in a Baylor uniform. Baylor’s 23 assists were the biggest in a Four Finals round since UNLV in 1990.
April 5 will mark four months after the cancellation of Gonzaga-Baylor. On the day it happened, Few said, “I absolutely think” we will find a way to see these two teams facing off later in the season.
“We will find a way to play at some point,” he added.
Hopeful. And prophetic. Come Monday, important.
Everything comes together in a magical way that only the NCAA Tournament can offer.
Baylor is back and better than ever. Gonzaga still seeks an unbeaten record and is yet another victory for immortality in the sport. Consider the wait. Consider the bets. Consider the programs and what is needed to get to this point. Consider Saturday night. Consider Jalen Suggs and that photo.
We have reached the perfect end of an imperfect season.