Best team in college basketball? We had it wrong all along. It’s always been Baylor
.JPG "Baylor players celebrate with the trophy after their championship-game win against Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament finale Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.")
On Feb. 2, Baylor went to Texas and defeated the Longhorns by 14 points in a battle of top-six teams.
The Bears wouldn’t play again for three weeks and hardly practiced. The program never confirmed the number of Bears who were ill, but as many as eight reportedly were dealing with COVID-19.
When unbeaten Baylor returned to the floor, the Bears were nearly defeated by an Iowa State team that finished 2-22, and then they lost for the first time this season at Kansas.
Their dream season appeared to be slipping away.
But Baylor regained its strength and stamina, building momentum all the way through the NCAA Tournament, and now it’s difficult to imagine the Bears playing any better than they did in their biggest game yet.
Baylor (28-2) defeated top-ranked and undefeated Gonzaga 86-70 to capture its first men’s basketball title and the second for the Big 12 in its 25-year history, joining the 2008 Kansas Jayhawks. It also was the second for a Texas school. The first? Texas Western, now UTEP, in 1966.
The confetti flew, players snipped down the nets and coach Scott Drew looked like he’d waited all his life to scream into a microphone during his postgame network interview. His father, Homer, the former William Jewell guard who became a legendary college coach, cheered from the stands.
This was Baylor’s time, enjoying the celebration of a champion before being serenaded by “One Shining Moment.”
Top-ranked Gonzaga (31-1) was bidding to become Division I’s first undefeated champion since Indiana in 1976. The Zags were the nation’s top-scoring team and had rolled through the NCAA Tournament untouched until a major scare against UCLA in the semifinals, a victory secured by Jalen Suggs’ 37-footer at the buzzer in overtime.
The Zags were a slight favorite Monday. But Baylor had also powered through its NCAA foes, including an easy triumph over Houston in the semifinals. The Bears had also battled through a league more difficult than Gonzaga’s West Coast Conference: seven of the Big 12’s 10 teams made it to the NCAA Tournament.
On Monday, Baylor proved it was the better team all along.
“The toughness and fortitude it took to keep playing after being sequestered for a month, plus playing a difficult Big 12 schedule ... Scott (Drew) did a great job,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said.
Keeping Baylor on track after the delay wasn’t a simple task. It took a special team to pull it off.
“I think it was harder to win it this year than ever before with the stoppages and testing and the sacrificing your social life just so you can play basketball games; having no fans sometimes,” said guard Jared Butler, who was named the tournament’s most outstanding player. “It’s just hard to get up sometimes for these games. And I’m just so thankful that we were able to play and the tournament still goes on.
“It was really cool to say we did that in the midst of adversity, in the midst of tribulations, and to bring it home for Baylor, it’s amazing.”
This also served as a rags-to-riches tale. When Drew was hired in 2003, Baylor had been ripped by scandal. A player had murdered a teammate. The Bears’ coach at the time, Dave Bliss, was forced to resign after lying about the incident and for committing rules violations.
The program limited itself to seven scholarships, didn’t play non-conference games and even took itself out of NCAA Tournament consideration, including the Big 12 Tournament. Drew held tryouts for walk-ons to fill his early rosters.
Fast-forward to Monday, and a game in which Baylor set the tone by scoring the first nine points of the game and leading by as many as 19 before the break.
The Zags sliced the margin to 10 at halftime and got it to nine with about 14 1/2 minutes remaining. If the game had a key sequence, it was here: Baylor used a 9-2 run capped by Adam Flagler’s three-pointer to restore a 16-point lead.
Butler finished with 22 points and was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player. But so many Baylor players chipped in. Davion Mitchell, who won the nation’s defensive player of the year awards, was aggressive on offense and defense. Six of Mark Vital’s 11 rebounds came on the offensive end.
The Bears’ defense on Gonzaga’s standout players, guys like Corey Kispert and Drew Timme, who finished with 12 points each, helped Baylor extend its lead.
“They punched us in the mouth from the get-go and it took us all night long,” Kispert said. “It took us a long time to recover, and by then it was too late.”
Suggs matched Butler’s 22 points, but there was no magic for Gonzaga against this rugged Baylor team.
“We tried to do everything in our power to try and flip the switch,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said. “But they were more aggressive on both ends of the floor.”
Gonzaga saw the Baylor that rolled through a stout Big 12.
“They just played up to their potential,” Bowlsby said. “In these last two games, they looked like they did in early January.”
Like the best team in college basketball. Monday night in Indiana, that much was confirmed.
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 12:03 AM.