I don’t know if it was the epic overtime game for Gonzaga on Saturday against UCLA, but they looked gassed. They came out flat and Baylor took advantage. Baylor started the game on a 13-4 run and never looked back. These two teams had the best combined winning percentage in a National Championship, but you wouldn’t be able to tell with the way Gonzaga was playing. You do have to give a lot of credit to the Bears’ defense, they made Gonzaga’s offense look sloppy, causing a lot of turnovers and bad shots. 

Gonzaga started to pick up the pace late in the first half going on a few different runs, and cutting the lead to 10 at half. Baylor led 47-37 at half. Gonzaga came out the second half more energized and creating more space offensively but still struggled to stop Baylor’s Davion Mitchell and Jared Butler. Gonzaga did cut the lead down to nine after being down by 14, but then struggled to get stops on the defensive end. Which was the story of the game, everytime Gonzaga went on a little offensive spurt they couldn’t get defensive stops. Baylor took Gonzaga’s run on the chin and got right back up. Baylor then extended the lead to 19 before winning by a score of 86-70. 

Gonzaga became only the second team since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers to enter the National Championship Game undefeated. The other team since 76 was the Indiana State Sycamores who, just like Gonzaga lost their perfect record in the Nation Championship Game. Gonzaga’s 31-0 season came to an end on Monday night, but that doesn’t make their season any less impressive. Yes, they play in a weak conference but winning 31 games in a row and 29 of them being by double digits is very impressive. 

Baylor is the 2021 National Champions, they had an amazing season and should be proud of the team they put together. Baylor showed that defense still matters and defense still wins championships. We now have to wait 232 days for college basketball.