{"id":219054,"date":"2021-04-05T03:38:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T00:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/gonzaga-baylor-is-fitting-way-for-march-madness-2021-to-end\/"},"modified":"2021-04-05T03:38:50","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T00:38:50","slug":"gonzaga-baylor-is-fitting-way-for-march-madness-2021-to-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gonzaga-baylor-is-fitting-way-for-march-madness-2021-to-end\/","title":{"rendered":"#Gonzaga-Baylor is fitting way for March Madness 2021 to end"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Gonzaga-Baylor is fitting way for March Madness 2021 to end<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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For 15 weeks, they were ranked Nos. 1 and 2.<\/p>\n

They were seeded that way in the NCAA Tournament. And on Monday night, Gonzaga and Baylor will finally get the chance to separate from one another, 40 potentially classic minutes \u2014 or more \u2014 that will determine a national champion in this unorthodox, COVID 19-impacted season.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting this is the way this season ends \u2014 four months to the day after the non-conference showdown between the two powers was canceled due to two positive tests in Gonzaga\u2019s travel<\/a>ing party. Ironically, that game<\/a>, called off the morning of, was set for Indianapolis, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we were riding back [in a car together], we were like, \u2018You know what, if we end playing this game in the Final Four or the championship game, that sounds like a better idea,\u2019\u201d Baylor coach Scott Drew said.<\/p>\n

This highly anticipated meeting at Lucas Oil Stadium is full of storylines, less than 48 hours after the Zags advanced on Jalen Suggs\u2019 40-foot bank shot in an overtime thriller over 11th-seeded UCLA. Either Gonzaga (31-0) completes a magical year as the first undefeated national champion since Indiana in 1975-76, or Baylor (27-2) caps its steady rise under Drew that began in 2003 following a wide-ranging scandal that included a player\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

It will pit two of the nation\u2019s premier guards, projected lottery picks in Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Davion Mitchell against Suggs. Program architects and friends Drew against Gonzaga\u2019s Mark Few. A trio of elite guards on each side all capable of game-turning offensive explosions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope or think maybe it\u2019s like preparing for my guards,\u201d Few said. \u201cThey present the same kinds of issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final will feature a series<\/a> of firsts.<\/p>\n

\"Jalen
Jalen Suggs celebrates his game-winning shot for Gonzaga over UCLA.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A first national championship for either Baylor or Gonzaga. The first time since 1962 the two finalists were ranked all season in the top three of the Associated Press rankings. The first time since 2005 (North Carolina-Illinois) the overall top two seeds advanced to the final Monday of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have elite on elite,\u201d Drew said.<\/p>\n

Gonzaga and Baylor are ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in offensive efficiency (in that order). They have five AP All-Americans between them \u2014 Gonzaga\u2019s Corey Kispert and Baylor\u2019s Jared Butler were first-team selections \u2014 and potentially as many as four first-round draft picks between them. Baylor is the nation\u2019s premier 3-point shooting team at 41.2 percent and Gonzaga leads the country in scoring (91.6) and field-goal percentage (55.0). There are two losses between them, both on Baylor\u2019s ledger, and just one single-digit tournament victory in 10 contests. Baylor won its five March Madness contests by 76 points; Gonzaga won its five by 99.<\/p>\n

Baylor feels it is back to where it was before a three-week COVID-19 pause in February, defending at a high level in limiting its tournament opponents to 26.6 3-point shooting and forcing 14 turnovers per game. Gonzaga showed it is as tough as it is talented, after fighting off UCLA in its lone true nail-biter of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always had Baylor [on our minds],\u201d Few said. \u201c[We thought], \u2018Look, if we\u2019re going to win this thing, we\u2019re probably at some point going to have to play them because I always thought we were the two best teams.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n

There are a lot of similarities among the programs. Few took Gonzaga from the tiny mid-major Cinderella to the top of the sport, leading the Zags to the Sweet 16 each of the last six tournaments. Drew inherited a program rife with dysfunction and has made it into a powerhouse, with three Elite Eight trips in the last decade. They are close, offseason fishing friends and are undefeated Pickleball partners in the Indianapolis bubble, Few joked. They have offered good-luck prayers before each other\u2019s tournament games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess he won\u2019t get that prayer text before this one,\u201d Drew said.<\/p>\n

After the initial game was canceled, Few and Drew worked on rescheduling it at a variety of different locations, from Phoenix to Kansas City, Las Vegas to Sioux Falls, N.D. It just never came to fruition. Monday night, at long last, it will.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is perfect,\u201d Drew said, \u201chow it\u2019s worked out.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Gonzaga-Baylor is fitting way for March Madness 2021 to end” For 15 weeks, they were ranked Nos. 1 and 2. They were seeded that way in the NCAA Tournament. And on Monday night, Gonzaga and Baylor will finally get the chance to separate from one another, 40 potentially classic minutes \u2014 or more \u2014 that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Jalen-Suggs-celebrates-his-game-winning-shot-for-Gonzaga-over-UCLA..jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[100714,82787,82023,95874,97300],"class_list":["post-219054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4-4-21","tag-baylor-bears","tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-march-madness","tag-march-madness-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}