Exactly four months to the day, Gonzaga and Baylor were scheduled to play each other looking like the two best teams in men's college basketball.
We never got to see that game, however, as COVID-19 protocols reared their ugly heads, leaving unanswered the question of who the best men's college basketball team really was.
After 40 minutes played on Monday night, though, the answer to that question is, definitively, the Baylor Bears, as they spoiled Gonzaga’s bid for the first undefeated college basketball season since 1976 with an emphatic, wire-to-wire 86-70 win.
This is Baylor’s first-ever national championship in just the program’s second appearance in a national title game and third Final Four foray.
Baylor head coach Scott Drew famously declared he came to Baylor to win a national championship during his introductory press conference way back in 2001 and though it took 20 years, he finally accomplished his goal.
Scott Drew in 2003: "At Baylor University I did not come to go to the NCAA tournament. We came to win games at the NCAA tournament. We came with the chance to win a #NationalChampionship at Baylor University."@BUDrew in 2021: National Champs #SicEm pic.twitter.com/ABbKShrNqH
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 6, 2021
Here's a few takeaways from a game that felt more like an extended Baylor championship victory lap than an actually competitive basketball game.
Just too skilled and athletic
If you had never seen Baylor play until Monday night’s game, then you were handed a treat.
One of the best three-point shooting teams in college hoops, and one that employs a particularly aggressive, scrambling zone that forces turnovers and speeds teams up, that was the exact recipe Baylor used to jump on Gonzaga from the start as the Bears got out to a 9-0 run to start the game and never looked back.
As a team, Baylor shot a magnificent 10-for-23 from three-point range and forced the Bulldogs to turn the ball over 14 times.
Additionally, the Bears demolished the Zags on the glass, out-rebounding them 38-22, including grabbing 16 offensive boards.
Coming off an emotionally charged, overtime thriller against UCLA, Gonzaga looked flat from the jump and while it did manage to make it a 10-point game heading into the half, fatigue – both physical and mental – appeared to take its toll on what was a remarkable college team this past season.
With that said, playing against, by far, the most athletic team they’ve seen all season long, the Bulldogs cracked as Baylor was able to disrupt the best offence in college basketball with hard close outs and athletic rim protection.
Gonzaga stars Drew Timme and Corey Kispert were, essentially, neutralized, because Baylor’s players didn’t even allow them to get shots up, leaving most of the responsibility to fall on freshman phenom Jalen Suggs’ shoulders who, despite scoring 22 on 8-of-15 shooting, needed more help that just wasn’t going to come.
Simply put, Baylor was the much better team Monday night and absolutely deserved to win.
Bears stars shine bright
As the old saying goes: Big players step up in big games, and all of Baylor’s top guns showed out on Monday night.
Leading scorer Jared Butler was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament and in the final, he finished with 22 points and seven assists.
The #FinalFour Most Outstanding Player...
JARED BUTLER! #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/8Boqr94enq— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) April 6, 2021
Additionally, Davion Mitchell had 15 points, six rebounds and five assists, MaCio Teague had 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting and Mark Vital was a monster on the glass, coming away with eight offensive rebounds and 11 in total.
Combine these great individual performances with team defence that looked like it was playing on a string with help and recovery everywhere Gonzaga went, and it’s pretty easy to see why Baylor ran away with this win.
Zags D let them down
Baylor’s defence will get a lot of deserved praise for shutting down what many thought was an unstoppable Gonzaga attack, but for as much as the Bulldogs were stymied, their own defence is probably what really undid them in the end.
In their Final Four match with UCLA, the blueprint to beat them was established as it was apparent that the Zags’ defence left a lot to be desired with the Bruins getting basically anything they wanted against them offensively.
It was the same Monday night, except instead of Johnny Juzang and Tyger Campbell carving them up, it was Butler, Teague and Mitchell, beating their man, getting into the lane at-will and then finding open shooters as the Bulldogs’ defence just collapsed.
So couple this bad defence with the team getting stopped on the other end and there was just no real chance for the Bulldogs to win.
Canadian content
Gonzaga’s Andrew Nembhard finished the national championship game with 11 points and eight assists, a solid line for the Aurora, Ont., native whose collegiate future is up in the air now.
A six-foot-five point guard with shooting touch and great natural passing and leadership skills, Nembhard looks like he’d be a natural fit for the NBA, although his lack of athleticism (by NBA standards) may hold him back. It will be interesting to see what he decides to do.
And huge shoutout to Baylor graduate assistant, and Canadian, Matt Gray on the big win.
