Zags and Bears to Tip for NCAA Championship

INDIANAPOLIS—Gonzaga vs. Baylor. 1 vs. 2. This was the game we’ve been waiting for all season. It was supposed to be played Dec. 5, but two positive Covid tests from Gonzaga players caused CBS to cancel the nationally televised showdown two hours before tipoff in this city.

As Baylor coach Scott Drew and Gonzaga coach Mark Few went to the podium to announce the cancellation, Drew could not resist saying, “Maybe we’ll meet in the Final Four.’’

College basketball has a date with destiny tonight. Gonzaga (31-0) will try to put the finishing touches on a perfect season. Baylor (27-2) who has not been to a Final Four since 1950 will try to ruin it and create their own shining moment.

These are not just the two best teams, but they are also the two best offenses. Baylor is the best three – point shooting team in the country and Gonzaga is shooting 63.9 percent from inside the three point line. Both the semi-final games were up tempo with Gonzaga needed every second of overtime to get past UCLA’s near perfect performance was evidence that they were better than being one of the last four in the tournament and Baylor blew away Houston whose play was closer the Cougar glory days of Elvin Hayes and Phi Slamma Jamma a far cry from the program Kelvin Sampson walked into in 2014.

“We have pros. They have pros,’’ Baylor guard Jared Butler said. “We win a lot of games. They win a lot of games.’’ All told, the game will include five All Americans — guards Butler and Davion Mitchell of Baylor and center Drew Timme and guards Corey Kispert and Jalen Suggs of Gonzaga.

In the end, it could come down to a matchup between Gonzaga’s 6-4 freshman point guard sensation Suggs, who transported the Zags into the big game with a 40-foot bomb at the buzzer to give them a 93-90 victory over UCLA in the national semi-finals and drew comparisons to buzzer beaters by Christian Laettner and Kris Jenkins; and 6-2 junior Mitchell, a transfer from Auburn whose nickname is “Off Night’’ and is the best on the ball defender in the college game.

Mitchell made it a point to scout Suggs, the catalyst of the Zags’ unselfish offense, on TV throughout the season.

He figures Suggs has done the same.

Mitchell had built a reputation for shutting down top guards throughout a season when he swept the national Defensive Player of the Year awards. He’s aware Suggs has plenty of help on the nation’s highest scoring team and his first priority will be to keep him out of transition. “I just got to know when to pick my spots and when I can pressure him and when not to pressure him,’’ Mitchell said. “But he’s got really good teammates around him, so I can’t put my teammates in a position where they’ve got to help me out and then leave somebody else open, because they can hurt us like that. So, my job is to stay in front of him and make it hard for him.’’

Suggs, a McDonald’s All America, who is in the conversation for the No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft, appears ready for the challenge.

“I can’t wait to get there. I’m extremely excited,’’ Suggs said. “And Baylor is a great team. They’ve got great guard play. They play really hard, have great defense, bigs who give it their all, play above the rim. So it’s going to be a dogfight.’’

Baylor is trying to become the first Texas team to win a title since Texas Western in 1966 to win a title. “It would mean a lot for our state,’’ Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “There are so many great high school coaches and programs. Junior colleges, universities that really support their basketball programs. I think in the next 20 years or so they’ll be a lot more Texas schools in the Final four with a chance to win the national championship.’’

Gonzaga and Baylor have been the consensus top two teams for most of the season. We’ve always had Baylor in the rear-view mirror,’’ Few said. “Look, if we’re going to win this thing, we’re probably at some point going to have to play them because I always thought we were the top two teams.’’

Baylor warmed up for this game by destroying Houston, 78-59, in the first game of the Final Four doubleheader and has won its five NCAA games by an average margin of 15.2 points.

Against Gonzaga, a lot will depend on what kind of productivity Drew gets from power forwards Mark Vital and Matthew Mayer. The 6-10 Mayer, a future pro, stepped up and score 19 against Houston. But Vital is a better defensive player will be key to slowing down Kispert when he plays power forward. There is also the question of how fast Gonzaga can recover after an adrenalin draining game against UCLA.

Drew likened the game to the old Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the 1980s. “With Gonzaga and us, we’ve followed what they’ve done and they’ve followed what we’ve done. I know it’s motivated us to get better, to try to improve and keep pace.’