INDIANAPOLIS – What does it look like when perfection is ruined? It looks like Gonzaga star Corey Kispert leaped to fire a 3-pointer that the team desperately needed, seeing a quick reaction from Baylor guard Jared Butler, then putting the ball down to dribble away. Tried to go, while three feet away from the ground. It is against the rules.
It appears that All-American center Drew Tamey was forced into a guarded turnaround jumper from 14 feet as his teammates ignored the shot clock and left him stranded without recourse but shot a shot in which There was very little chance.
It looks like Coach Mark Fuwes was left out of a switching man-to-man defense that Beers snatched and tried in the zone 2-3, then later 1-3-1 and Baylor took whatever scheme. I tried zags and found flaws in it. .
BENDER: Beiler finished his storybook on a perfect night
It seems that Baylor coach Scott Drew gestured his bench to call deep reserves, walk-ons, allowing him one last minute to tell his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews that he Ended the game for the win. NCAA Championship game.
And Gonzaga seems to have left the floor in tears as one-to-fresh Jalson Sugge, just two days later, stood at the scorer’s table as the buzzer-beating king of the Final Four.
If it did not end successfully, it was unlikely to end beautifully.
Gonzaga’s drive to a perfect championship season did not end on Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium. The “1” came after 31 consecutive wins, leaving fans of the program scared. The opportunity to become the first undefined NCAA tournament winner since 1976 rapidly disappeared against a Baylor surge that was counted as something “offensive” – or some etymology of that term – later in a 15-minute discussion with reporters Seven times in total.
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It was Gonzaga’s second appearance in the NCAA Championship game after 2017, and the second time in which it went out in defeat, but the first time in which it entered without a loss.
“It is clearly that these people never knew and had to deal with it,” Sporting News said. Try to give them as much perspective as you can. And as usually happens with everything, time will give them the best perspective.
“But they have just been a wonderful, incredible group. And I just told them that they are so easy to coach and so easy to deal with all these COVID stuff that we deal with all year.” Just amazed at how they handled everything. “
The Zags did not lose as they play in the West Coast Conference and face less competition than the Bears through January and February. He did not lose because he ruled himself out of play late Saturday, his overtime semi-final against UCLA ending on a 37-foot bank shot from star Freshman Suggs. They did not lose as they were carrying a huge burden as the team was chasing an undefeated season.
“I never felt that we played with that weight all year,” some said. “I always felt like we were aggressive and we always were – I call it the attacking mode. And we ran into a team tonight, that was, they were aggressive. Both sides.
“And, look, I’ve been watching them all year and last year and I knew they were going to be a handful for us. Just those watchmen are so quick and they can all get together for their own shot.” Are. They are obviously more athletic than we are around the rim. But I felt that we could get some advantages as well, and we are not able to do that right now. “
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They lost because Baylor excelled: big, powerful, deep and outrageously skilled. The Bears’ backcourt trio of Davidian, Jared Butler and MaCio Teague added 7 of 7 from 3-point range, and Reserve Flagler hit 3 of 4.
They lost because the Zags were not excellent this evening, unlike what they had done many times before.
The 2017 loss to North Carolina went to the final minute before the Tar Heels’ game was seized. It was close to the first minute when this decision was made. The Zagars were quickly beaten by Baylor’s Dynamite Guards and rugged bigots. He was beaten in and out, on the offensive end and on the D. He was beaten on boards (38-22) and on the perimeter (14 turnovers, many of them from dribbling in the vicinity of several bowlers). .
Beggle quickly informed the Zags that his preference for a four-guard lineup was going to be problematic. The Beers captured five of the first eight rebels who came off their offensive board. By halftime, he had nine offensive rebellions, a 47.3 percent rate, and by the end it had improved to 48.5 percent. The best offensive rebounding team in college basketball this season, North Carolina scored an average of 40.9.
Perhaps an even bigger issue was Gonzaga’s decision to switch to all five positions, often matching one guard, often Butler, Mitchell or Teague. Those three combined for 31 of Boiler’s 47 first half points.
Whatever defense they were playing, and although it was ineffective, there was no way the Zags were going to win without hitting a few 3-point shots. And they missed six of their first seven and completed 5 of 17. An All-American Kispert re-showed his ability to play above the rim on both ends, but he continued to do a light (but badly timed) shooting. Just 2 out of 7 from deep, bringing their three-game Lucas Oil Stadium to 25K7. This is 28 percent. He entered the elite eight shooting .461 from deep.
“Especially in a place like this, in this environment – the more aggressive team gets more calls. The more aggressive team makes more 3s,” said Kispert. “The more aggressive team gets more rebellions. And they punched us right at the mouth of the get-go. And it took us a long time to recover and start playing them again. But then it was too late. “
It did not end until the final time an undefeated team came close to winning the championship, when Larry Bird and Indiana State met in the title game and their team, at the same time, was physically highly specialized in the frontcourt.
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“It’s really hard to end a storybook season,” some said. “But listen, Baylor just defeated us. They beat us tonight in every aspect of the game and deserves all the credit. And obviously we are all disappointed here, but, you know, as I told people, Like, you make. It’s up to this time and you’re going to go from 31-0 to the last, last minute of the 40th season, there’s nothing you should never feel bad about. And they are going to be this season. Will see again because time is just something amazing happening. And incredible
The Jags entered this weekend near a crossroads. We are not much for the people around Indy. We prefer left turn and roundabout, but such contact was / or unavoidable for a team that reached the final round with a perfect record. There were two directions, and it was mandatory to choose one.
On one side were seven teams that finished the entire college basketball season without a loss and with the NCAA Championship. Some of us can list them all without seeing it: 1956 San Francisco, 1957 North Carolina, 1964 UCLA, 1967 UCLA, 1972 UCLA, 1973 UCLA and 1976 Indiana. The NCAA tournament was first played in 1939, and only that elite group was able to complete the entire trip to perfection.
There were teams in the opposite direction, an impenetrable collection that came so close to eliminating the undefeated, but could not. There were those who went deep into the season before stumbling at least once, and then approached the title without grabbing it: UMass 1996, Illinois 2005, Memphis 2008. There were those who made it to the final four before seeing their mark. The Bad: UNLV 1991 and Kentucky 2015, most prominently. Even Bird was a 1979 Sycamore, who fell in the national championship game for Michigan State and Magic Johnson.
Each team in both groups is a legend. Therefore it was not about whether Gonzaga would be able to seize greatness. Which had already been achieved. It was about getting the job done. It did not happen.
“You forget. You really forget what it’s like to lose,” Kispert told Sporting News. “And every time it happens, it doesn’t feel good. And thankfully I haven’t taken a lot of them in my career, whether it’s in the regular season or in the tournament.
“But I mean, it’s really hard to compete when you come up against a team that’s been firing on all cylinders for just 40 minutes. So, yes, you forget and it doesn’t look good. Is. ‘Ll remember it for a long time. “
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