12/03/24
April 06, 2021
Baylor Bears Win First NCAA Basketball Championship: Eighteen years after taking over a program rocked by scandal, Scott Drew led Baylor to the NCAA championship in basketball over Gonzaga. It's the school's first and the state's first since Texas Western (UTEP) won in 1966. Bears guard Jared Butler had 22 points and 7 assists and was named the tournament's outstanding player.
posted by rcade to basketball at 08:55 AM - 6 comments
Congrats Bears.
Baylor women have won three titles, one of them with an undefeated team.
TAMU has won a women's title.
Chris Beard got the Texas Tech men's program cranked up, if he gets the Longhorns going, look out.
Texas could be a force in college hoops for a while to come.
posted by beaverboard at 10:43 AM on April 06, 2021
Good to see another program (actually 2) focused on building a team rather than banking on getting lucky on the 1 and done lottery have success.
Suggs early foul trouble pretty much killed any hope the Zags had but probably would not have changed the final outcome. Gonzaga's other key players were physically outmatched by their Baylor opponents.
posted by cixelsyd at 11:36 AM on April 06, 2021
I don't know, I don't think of many of the recent champions or final four teams as banking too heavily on 1-and-dones. Kentucky and Duke are the main ones; Kansas, Arizona, and UNC do a little bit but don't base their whole teams on it. Kentucky and Duke have certainly won championships on that model, but they're not running away with everything every year. Then there's the odd team with one phenom that doesn't end up doing much. But Virginia and Villanova (to say nothing of fellow recent final four teams like Michigan, Michigan State, Texas Tech, Auburn, etc) work much more gradually.
posted by LionIndex at 03:27 PM on April 06, 2021
If you're going to work that hard, the trophy you win ought to look like it was worth the effort.
The NCAA trophy looks like the wayward stepchild of a mantle clock. It could easily be mistaken for an annual sales award.
posted by beaverboard at 04:13 PM on April 06, 2021
I agree beaverboard, you would think with all of the hoopla around March MadnessTM the NCAA would have produced something comparable with the crystal football for the basketball champions by now.
posted by bender at 09:19 AM on April 07, 2021
Quite a display by Baylor, wasn't it? Going up 11-1 and pushing Suggs to the bench with foul trouble effectively ended the game at 3:04 of the first half.