Late in the first half, the Zags remembered who they are.įew went to a 1-3-1 and 2-3 zone and the momentum temporarily turned.įew had already known the pain and regret of taking Gonzaga to the 2017 national championship game against North Carolina and wondering if One Shining Moment would ever be his someday. Mark Few discounted that, but fatigue makes cowards of us all. If it wasn’t stagefright, then UCLA must have drained them of their fight. He was sobbing when his one-and-done collegiate career ended.ĭrew Timme lost the ball twice early and looked lost. He was scoreless until 6:47 remained in the half. Jalen Suggs committed two early fouls and his miracle shot that sent UCLA home quickly seemed like a distant memory. They had hit their first five 3s and were playing at a different speed with a different tenacity and intensity and by the time the Zags realized what hit them, it was 29-10. The Bears were more physical, and out-toughed and out-hustled and out-rebounded the Zags from the start. “You really do forget what it’s like to lose,” Kispert said. They were turned into Larry Bird’s 1979 Indiana State Sycamores, who lost to Magic Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans in the championship game. The Zags don’t get to be Bob Knight’s 32-0 1976 Indiana Hoosiers. The team that had been diminished by its three-week COVID pause in February … peaked at the perfect time to deny perfection.īaylor dominates Gonzaga to win national championship This was a victory for Defense Wins Championships. If we’d lost we wanted to have no regrets.” “You don’t get these opportunities often,” Drew said, “and when you do, you gotta make the most of ’em, and I thought we were really on a mission to make the most of it. He doesn’t have to listen anymore to the naysayers who don’t think he can coach. There has never been a rebuilding job like this in college basketball. Baylor head coach Scott Drew Getty ImagesĪfter all the darkness, he deserves this One Shining Moment. He had bet on himself when he arrived in Waco in 2003 and won, waded into what had been a cesspool of scandal, resurrected a program ravaged by the murder of one its players by a teammate, took it out of hell all the way up to hoop heaven. No one could possibly have imagined Scott Drew standing atop a ladder with scissors in hand cutting down a net on the last Monday night of the college basketball season at Lucas Oil Stadium, his mentor and father Homer Drew applauding for him and his marvelous team. “They punched us in the mouth right at the gitgo,” Corey Kispert said, “and it took a long, long time for us to kinda recover … and by then it was too late.”Īnd staggered the Zags and left them bloody and bowed and 31-1. UCLA had dented Gonzaga’s aura of invincibility.īaylor stormed out of the gates like an enraged Clubber Lang with the first nine points of the game, driven to unceremoniously strip it away once and forever.īaylor, the dominant 86-70 winner, was a team possessed and a team obsessed.Īnd when Gonzaga made it’s inevitable run, when Gonzaga whittled a 19-point first-half deficit to nine early in the second half, the Bears stood their ground, and growled in no uncertain terms: GONEZAGA. The Baylor Bears wanted this moment, this night, this stage … this opponent.įor two years they were on a mission to show the college basketball world that they, not Gonzaga, not anyone else, were the best team in the land.įor 73 years, really, the last time the school had reached the national championship game, only to lose to Adolph Rupp and Kentucky at the Garden. Sean Stellato is loving the Giants journey he and Tommy DeVito are on Tommy DeVito isn't letting his Giants folk hero status change him It's open season on NFL referees and it's only going to get worse Jalin Hyatt has no doubt of future stardom despite 'underdog' history Tommy DeVito has 'It factor' to continue Giants winning train against Saints
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