Preamble
Whatever Baylor does for the next few hours, it’s all about Gonzaga. While we hopped at the start of the men’s tournament, the main story was whether a team could stop Gonzaga’s attempt to not only win their first-ever NCAA championship, but also start an unbeaten season.
We may have just witnessed Gonzaga Bulldogs’ biggest challenge in the UCLA Bruins, who managed to make the unprecedented journey from the first four to the last four and then forced Gonzaga to play over once and almost forced them to make a Second to play. . Then, of course, Jalen Suggs made an instantly legendary three-pointer from nearly half the track to put them a game away from perfection.
Jalen Suggs’s buzzer struck three.
It was a great game, to the point where the immediate analysis finally read, “maybe that was really the men’s championship game.” Well, the Baylor Bears may be hoping everyone overlooks them. After all, before Gonzaga first turned out to be vulnerable throughout the tournament, he struggled to put an 11 awayth-seed upstart, Baylor absolutely drove No. 2 Houston 78-59. If they’re overlooked as just a footnote to the Gonzaga story, then maybe that works for them.
That’s the downside to the fact that it’s all about the Bulldogs: the pressure is all on Mark Few’s team. Gonzaga spent most of their existence as a mid-major who could never win the big game, always faltering at the greatest moment. Until this run, their most memorable moment was Adam Morrison bursting into tears on the field when they were crushed by (of all teams) UCLA. Literally unbeatable all season long, chances are if they don’t win this final game, the time will never come. They saw it almost all fall apart on Saturday and if they are struggling today, Baylor will start to smell blood. Maybe this goes according to the script, with Gonzaga handling Baylor easily or maybe … or maybe this depends on who got the ball last.
That’s how it should be, of course, it all comes down to the players on the field. We talk about the programs, the coaches, the seedings, the stirrups and everything around the tournament, but it comes down to the athletes on the track. They are the reason we watch and they ultimately determine the outcome. Okay, that sounds a bit like a lot, but that’s what college basketball does to even those of us who remain extremely cynical about everything that goes on behind the scenes.
If you’d like to join today’s live blog, send an email to [email protected] or tweet them at @BuienRadarNLIt is the NCAA national men’s basketball championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium. They say we start around 9:20 PM EST, but we’ll be back here well before then.