One exhilarating sequence of defensive effort explains how Baylor became national champions

The Bears play hard. Really, really hard.

Baylor and Gonzaga had been angling toward a meeting in the men’s national championship game for months now, so it was delightful when the tournament delivered us the game we wanted.

Then, in mere minutes, all the intrigue washed away as it became abundantly clear that the Bulldogs would not have much luck on this night dealing with the Bears’ relentless and well-schooled defense.

Sure, Gonzaga pushed back into the game briefly — pulling within 9 points with 14:30 remaining — but Baylor simply executed too well and too consistently to ever let the game look like it might slip away.

Bears big man Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua had picked up his fourth foul early in the second half, signaling a possible opening for the Bulldogs, but sublime guard Jared Butler urged Baylor through, getting to the line for two free throws and assisting on two other buckets to push the lead back to 16 points 96 seconds later and that, pretty much, was that.

Yet even as the game was dwindling toward the end, Baylor was doing stuff like this:

I don’t want to blow this out of proportion; the score is 82-65 at this point with less than three minutes left. You might point out that MaCio Teague is playing on sheer jubilation at this point, and that Gonzaga knows it is defeated and has sagged.

But this is worth noting. The original broadcast angle leaves Teague, of course, since he’s basically in a concession stand serving up hot dogs as the ball goes back into play. But then he magically reappears to disrupt the 3. It froze my brain the first time I saw it.

Plus, this is how Baylor played all night. All tournament, really. Saying that Scott Drew won this title by getting his players to buy in over-simplifies a lot — he had extremely good players, after all — but in a year disrupted by COVID-19 it was clearly a factor.

Baylor’s defense wasn’t exactly smothering; Gonzaga still got the shots it wanted.

Baylor was deep enough and constructed in a way that allowed it to make those important plays. The rebound in the above play is grabbed by Mark Vital, a 6-5 senior who had 11 boards on the night and thrived in that role all season.

Gonzaga, sadly, had played late into Saturday evening and needed an epic last-second shot to beat a tough UCLA team in overtime. The Bulldogs certainly looked fatigued and bewildered early as the Bears, who coasted against Houston in their semifinal, simply got to work.

There’s a version of this matchup that stays closer longer, but this Baylor team has been so difficult to play against for months and was not going to let this game go once it took control early.

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