INDIANAPOLIS – At the break of Baylor’s 78-59 victory over Houston in Saturday’s Final Four, it was clear that the two programs, one from the Big 12 and one from the American Athletic Conference, were operating at two different levels.
Baylor’s 45-20 lead at halftime was the biggest lead at halftime in a Final Four game in 18 years and the fourth-largest in Final Four history, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information. Marcus Sasser had scored 17 points for his team in that situation. The rest of the Cougars had combined to record just three at the break.
Jared Butler finished with 17 points, five players recorded double figures and Baylor scored 46% of his triples. This is the story of the game.
On Saturday, Baylor did all the things that have made him a candidate for the national title and the game’s most dominant program since the start of the 2019-2020 season. The Bears have lost just five games since Nov. 8, 2019.
Baylor is now preparing for a possible clash with Gonzaga on Monday, if the Bulldogs can beat UCLA on Saturday in the second national semifinal. In December, Baylor and Gonzaga had to meet before canceling the match hours before the start of the test due to positive tests of COVID-19 within Gonzaga’s program.
“They have professionals,” Butler said after his team’s win over Houston. “We have professionals.”
Scott Drew, Baylor’s long-term change orchestrator for all eras, said both he and Mark Few agreed, after canceling their game four months ago, that a meeting at the NCAA could be on the horizon.
“I know who it will be, it will be a very hard-fought match,” Drew said Saturday. “Coach Pew and I joked when the game was canceled and we went to the court and did a press conference saying the game was canceled and not. And as we walked back, we were , you know what, if we end up playing this game in the Final Four or the championship, it seems like a better idea, so obviously that was the goal of both of us.
“And I know we’re there. And we’ll see if [it’s] Gonzaga or UCLA. … Once again, whoever you play, it will be a great showdown and they are both great teams. “
Since the original game was canceled, the Bulldogs have gone down in history, retaining their impeccable track record in search of the perfect first season in 45 years. Meanwhile, Baylor kept pace with the Bulldogs until a three-week hiatus due to positive coronavirus cases that appeared to disrupt the show’s mojo.
Baylor lost to Kansas in their second game back before losing to Oklahoma State in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament. The latter, for Drew, helped Baylor regain focus.
“We lost to a very good Oklahoma State team in our conference tournament, which was a blessing, looking back, because we were able to practice and really improve our defense, that at the end of the day we wouldn’t be here today if we [in the] the second half didn’t block and he did a great job on that stretch, ”Drew said after winning his Arkansas team at the Elite Eight.
In fact, this has been an unlikely race for Drew in Baylor. When it arrived in 2003, the show was caught in one of the worst scandals the sport had ever seen. After the arrest of Carlton Dotson for the murder of his teammate Patrick Dennehy, former coach Dave Bliss resigned after an assistant coach caught him on the treadmill encouraging players to create a story about Dennehy that would have painted as a drug dealer to launch Bliss’ aroma investigators. illegal actions, which included inappropriate payments to players, including Dennehy.
“I’m extremely excited to be part of the Baylor family,” Drew said at his introductory press conference in 2003. He was hired shortly after Bliss resigned and asked him to perform a miracle on a program that hadn’t been to the Final Four since 1950.
In Drew’s third season, Baylor finished 4-13 in the midst of major Bliss-era NCAA sanctions, including a ban on non-conference games. After Saturday’s win, he credited the people in his corner to help him get ahead after the first challenges at Baylor.
“Well, you’re grinding every day,” Drew said of Saturday’s trip. “And you really don’t look back. You just keep going. And I’ve been so happy to have amazing players who have bought what we like to do with the program, tremendous assistant coaches who have sacrificed so much time, a lot of work, sweat to get to here “.
Saturday’s game, however, sealed the program’s first national title appearance since 1948. It also added another chapter to Drew’s narrative.
Baylor was not just a troubled program when it arrived. He had been hit by an unprecedented set of challenges. But his patience has paid off.
Even when his team had to pay the price for the actions of a previous coach, Drew remained positive.
“The light is definitely at the end of the tunnel,” Drew said in 2005.
On Monday at Lucasap Stadium in Indianapolis, Baylor and Drew want to shine again.