INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Baylor knew it would need to play to near-perfection to end Gonzaga's flawless season.
The Bears just about did.
Jared Butler and their dynamic backcourt hit their first five 3-pointers and never cooled off. Undersized big man Mark Vital delivered as many headaches as bruises. Their bench was superb, their rebounding exceptional, their game plan impeccable and the coaching of Scott Drew spot-on in the crowning moment of his long building job in Waco, Texas.
Th result was a stunning 86-70 rout of the overall No. 1 seed for the first men's basketball title in school history.
“I can tell you that our guys have been motivated all year. It’s a player-led team,” Drew said. “We’re so blessed to have unbelievable upperclassmen and leadership. But we play with a culture of joy and as you saw for yourself they came out and they fed off of each other. We got off to a great start and then defensively we’re pretty good.”
Butler, the do-everything All-American, led the way with 22 points, outdueling Gonzaga freshman sensation Jalen Suggs in a matchup of premier point guards. Butler hit four 3-pointers, repeatedly broke down the Bulldogs off the dribble and, when they managed to stop him, piled up seven assists by finding someone else wide open.
Often it was his backcourt buddies MaCio Teague (19 points) and Davion Mitchell (15 points).
Or it was Vital, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound fullback in basketball shoes. He had three offensive rebounds before the game was 3 minutes old, finished with six points and 11 boards and made life miserable for Gonzaga star Drew Timme.
“Look, I’ve been watching them all year and last year,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said, “and I knew they'd be a handful for us. Those guards are so quick and they can all get their own shot, and they're obviously more athletic than we are around the rim. I thought we could find some advantages, too, but we just weren't quite able to do that.”
The teams were supposed to play in December in Indianapolis, but an outbreak of COVID-19 within the Gonzaga program forced the game to be called off. The two teams spent most of the regular season ranked 1-2 in the AP poll, and they were anointed the co-favorites for a most unique NCAA Tournament played entirely in central Indiana.
Despite only 8,000 fans in the crowd, the vast majority of them wearing green and gold, there was a palpable excitement about the game — perhaps it was still lingering from the Final Four, when Suggs hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime to beat UCLA in one of the most remarkable finishes in