A National Champion is Crowned in NCAA Men’s Basketball

It’s been more than forty years since a team completed the improbable undefeated season by capping it off as the National Champion team.

After the game on Monday, this particular event will have to wait a bit longer. The Baylor Bears came to play and gave the Gonzaga Bulldogs everything they could throughout the game. In the end, only one team was left standing and that team was crowned as champions.

The Two Top Teams Collided

While the Bears and Bulldogs were supposed to face each other earlier in the season, the first meeting between these two was in the National Championship game. Baylor faced aseason interruption by COVID-19 which may have been the reason for them to post two losses going into the tournament. Either way, these teams were the top two seeds going into the tournament and they found themselves face-to-face for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.

Baylor Took Control Early

The championship game started fast and became a physical matchup, which favored Baylor. The Bears jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first part of the game and only expanded on that lead with a 29-10 lead with less than ten minutes hadticked off of the game clock. This was the largest deficit that Gonzaga faced all season and was going to prove to be a problem for the Bulldogs.

The Zags Showed Some Life Before Halftime

With a couple of in-game adjustments on defense and some scoring runs, the Zags found themselves cutting the Baylor lead to ten by halftime. The defense switched from a strict man-to-man into a zone which caused Baylor to need to shoot over the top and try and get the ball down low. With this change, Gonzaga had some momentum going into the break.

Fouls Were Causing Trouble for the Bulldogs

The first few minutes of the game featured a couple of ill-advised fouls for the Gonzaga starting star guard who had to sit for muchof the first half. Neither team was without fouls as Baylor saw one of its stars foul out of the game relatively early in the second half while other players on both teams continued to play with three or four fouls each.

Aggressive Play by Baylor Resulted in them Being National Champions

Throughout the game, it was easy to see that Baylor was the more aggressive team. They had more shot attempts than Gonzaga, 18 to be exact, and many of these additional shots came on offensive rebounds which totaled 16 for the game. This aggressive play gave the Bears many second-chance points that Gonzaga just didn’t have at any time during the game.

Better Shooting from Baylor in Two Areas

From behind the three-point arc, Baylor made ten shots to the five that Gonzaga put through the net. Four of these ten came in the first ten minutes of the game, which set the tone for this team. Another area where Baylor outshot Gonzaga was at the free-throw line. This gave the Bears many ways to increase their lead and never look back during the game.

A Game Worth Waiting For

We waited more than a year to crown a National Champion in NCAA Men’s Basketball once again. With the tournament canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year wasn’t agiven and many teams, including Baylor, had interruptions during the season due to positive test results by players or staff. Thankfully, we made it to the end and the championship game featured the top two teams from the regular season squaring off for the crown.

Expect These Teams to Remain Strong

The Gonzaga Bulldogs have become a regular fixture in the NCAA Tournament and Baylor has built to this point and looks to continue to have success going forward. You can expect to see both teams in the tournament for the next few years, but another team that enters with a perfect record until the final game is going to be unlikely in the near future.

Baylor Bears: Men’s Basketball National Champion Team

After the incredible game on Monday, April 5, we have a National Champion in NCAA Men’s Basketball once again. The Baylor Bears get to wear the crown proudly and showcase their success for the next year. Thankfully, the NCAA made it to this point in the season and look forward to the potential of a season with full stands when the 2021-2022 season begins once again in November.