The conclusion of the 2021 NCAA Tournament is shaping up to be the best possible confrontation one could have wished with the No. 1 Gonzaga and Baylor seeds arriving on a collision course for the supremacy of college basketball this unique season. Gonzaga, just one win away from becoming the first team since Indiana in 1976 to be an undefeated national champion, debuted as a clear favorite over Baylor in the national championship game on Monday night.
Gonzaga is listed as a 4.5-point favorite, according to the William Hill Sportsbook, after not covering the difference for the first time in the NCAA Tournament against UCLA on Saturday night (4-1 ATS). However, that horn in Jalen Suggs’ overtime victory was enough to keep his hopes of a national title alive.
While Suggs was burying UCLA seed number 11 with blockades in the defense and almost half an attack on the horn, Baylor took Houston’s second place in his semifinal clash. The Bears – coming from victories against Wisconsin, Villanova and Arkansas – had another level against which the Cougars were not ready to compete, as Scott Drew’s team achieved a 78-59 victory.
Throughout the season, Gonzaga and Baylor remained constant in the elite of college basketball, so it is rare that the two face each other on the last night of the season for the national championship. Both teams will attempt to win the school’s first men’s basketball championship, with each having only a second place in the program’s history, Baylor in 1948 with Bill Henderson and Gonzaga in 2017 with Mark Few in the loss to North Carolina.