The Baylor Bears win the 2021 National Championship
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. This year, a new NCAA National Basketball champion was crowned. This season was very unpredictable as Covid-19 protocols forced many programs to miss games and have to shuffle schedules up like a deck of cards. At the end it was the Baylor Bears who would take home the title, and they did so in dominating fashion. They won by the score 86-70. They absolutely crushed the highly respected Gonzaga Bulldogs and ended their chances of running the table and having a perfect season. Right from the beginning of the game Baylor came out swinging haymakers and they never trailed in the game.
Canadian Press.
All season long the Gonzaga Bulldogs have won games simply because they had more firepower than their opponents. This game would be the complete opposite. Baylor had been flying under the radar all season. Although they were winning games, all people could talk about was Gonzaga and their undefeated season. Once they secured an opportunity to compete for a National title they pounced on Gonzaga the moment the ref threw the ball in the air for the tip-off.
Davion Mitchell #45 of the Baylor Bears reacts in the second half of the National Championship game of the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament against the Gonzaga Bulldogs at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 05, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
This is the first National Championship in school history for Baylor. All-American guard Jared Butler had 22 points and seven assists for the Bears while his teammate MaCio Teague had 19 for the Bears (28-2). This championship is a culmination of an epic rebuild by coach Scott Drew, who took over an ailing program in the aftermath of controversy in 2003. The last time the Bears made it to this stage, and that was so long ago the NIT was actually the better tournament and was considered the real national championship.
Davion Mitchell of the Baylor Bears with the trophy after his team beat the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the National Championship game of the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday in Indianapolis. Photo courtesy of Jamie Squire/Getty Images
The Bears simply wanted it more. They forced 16 turnovers and were stronger in every facet of the game. It doesn’t come as a shock that the Bears got out to a fast start. In the tournament Baylor outscored all six of its opponents by an average of 15 points. It beat Houston by 19 in the semifinal. Less than 5 minutes into the final, the Bears were ahead of Gonzaga by double digits.
Congratulations to the Baylor Bears Basketball team. They really fought and put on a show for the ages. They executed one of the most dominant performances any team has ever put on at the Final Four, and for that they’ll go down in the record books. Salute ?.
***Cover photo courtesy of NBC.com