NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship Game

[ProneEisenrott]

Very anticlimactic after Gonzaga's dramatic win in the Final Four to preserve their perfect season, only to get squashed in the Final against Baylor.

If I had no context beyond this single game, I would have thought Baylor had the superior team for the ages and Gonzaga was merely a contender, lucky to have made it that far in the Tourney.

With as smooth as the Zags have looked on offense all year, I was stunned at how ineffective they were early on against Baylor and how they were unable to mount a contesting run later in the game (okay, I think they got it down to single digits in the second half, but that was short-lived.)

Not to take anything away from Baylor, a great team all year themselves, but I really thought this was going to be the year of the perfect team, but like so many others, Gonzaga just couldn't string together enough great games to close out the victory. I was very surprised.

Any thoughts/reactions?

[SiteWolf]

That's just it. Anyone watching the Zags even just during the tournament would have felt the UCLA game was an anomoly and Gonzaga would roll over most anyone, while Baylor had shown signs of weakness. After all, they didn't exactly roll over mid-seed Wisconsin and Villanova before struggling against Arkansas, then finding their stride against Houston.

Baylor's aggressive and relentless defense just made Gonzaga uncomfortable the entire game. When they cut it to 10 at the half I thought they might take over in the second, but Baylor wouldn't have it.

[jbrune56]

tuned in at halftime - my only stake was because of march madness pickem, as the Fighting Illini were my bracket pick to win. What I like about the pickem is the reset that you don't have with brackets, that each round stands on its own. We will find out in ten minutes anyway, but I went with the favorite since I had the lead. Baylor had beaten Illinois WAY back at the beginning of the year before their COVID pause, so maybe I should have gone with them anyway. The part I saw was a great game even though never very close, as Baylor put on a clinic. On to baseball (actually taxes then baseball). Thanks to all for playing and to sitewolf for pulling off the game as always.