Bulldogs shoot for magic ending
After buzzer-beater stops UCLA, Zags’ bid for unbeaten title comes down to final
INDIANAPOLIS — Mark Few claimed that he knew Jalen Suggs' shot was going in. If so, the Gonzaga coach was almost certainly the only one.
Suggs's 40-foot bank shot at the buzzer that gave Gonzaga a stunning 93-90 overtime victory over UCLA on Saturday night in the NCAA tournament's Final Four will go down with Lorenzo Charles's championship-winning dunk for North Carolina State in 1983; Kris Jenkins' buzzer-beating three-pointer to win the championship for Villanova in 2016; and Christian Laettner's turnaround jumper that rescued Duke in the 1992 regional final in the pantheon of historic college basketball moments.
One question remains: Can Gonzaga, now 31-0, win one more game to make Suggs' miracle part of a historic season?
The answer's simple: Maybe. Gonzaga will face Baylor in a championship game that matches the two teams that were clearly the best in the country all season and were the top seeds coming into the tournament. The Bears embarrassed Houston in the opener Saturday, taking complete control of the game after it was tied 8-8 almost five minutes in. They outscored the Cougars 37-12 the rest of the first half and then toyed with them the second half, cruising to a 78-59 victory that wasn't even that close.
Marcus Sasser scored 17 points for Houston in the first half. The rest of his teammates combined to score three. Seriously. The Cougars had beaten four doubledigit seeds to get here and it was clear early they didn't belong in this weight class. Coach Kelvin Sampson has now coached two Final Four teams — the first at Oklahoma in 2002 — and lost the two games by a combined 28 points.
There was a break of close to 90 minutes between games to make sure the court area was washed down. About 8,200 people were in the building: Houston fans had fled; Baylor fans were celebrating, and UCLA and Gonzaga fans were on the mostly empty concourses searching for something to eat.
The entire eerie and, frankly, boring evening changed completely once the second game began. It had all the intensity the first one lacked, and UCLA was clearly not intimidated even a little bit. Again, the notion of UCLA as lovable underdog is still difficult to wrap one's head around even though the Bruins have won one national title (1995) since John Wooden stopped winning them almost annually (10 in 12 years) when he retired in 1975. The Zags had won 29 games by at least double digits during their remarkable season, their only single-digit victory coming here in Indianapolis in early December when they beat West Virginia 87-82. Brigham Young had given them a mini-scare in the WCC championship game, leading by 12 in the first half before Gonzaga pulled away for an 88-78 win.
Beyond that, it had been dominance, including routs of teams such as Kansas, Iowa, Auburn and Virginia. They put up 98 against the Cavaliers. No one scores 98 points against a Tony Bennett-coached team. Except the Bulldogs did it and made it look easy.
Saturday, though, was different. UCLA simply wouldn't go away. Somehow, the 11-time national champions had become Cinderella in this event, riding a wave that began with an overtime win in a play-in game against Michigan State and carried all the way through to Lucas Oil Stadium for 45 scintillating minutes.
On Tuesday, the Bruins scored 51 points in their upset of Michigan in the East Region Final. On Saturday, they scored 44 in the first half — and trailed by one. They shot 57.6 percent from the field and made 8 of 17 threes — and lost. Barely. Every time it seemed Gonzaga was about to take control of the game UCLA had an answer.
Until Suggs hit his shot and there was, at last, no chance to answer. It was probably the first time all season the Bulldogs celebrated after a victory. The first 30 had pretty much been ho-hum. This was anything but ho-hum. It was thrilling from minute one to minute 45.
It's worth taking a minute to give UCLA coach Mick Cronin some credit. He was about the fourth choice to take over a fallen program two years ago, and he's proved that his largely unnoticed record of 296-147 in 13 seasons at Cincinnati was no fluke. His last three teams there were 89-18, and it was clear on Saturday that his team was prepared and believed it was going to win. Let's not go with the “no one lost this game,” cliche, but the Bruins can certainly hold their heads high.
Years ago, the NCAA insisted that the semifinal losers stick around for the championship game — which was torture for the players. Fortunately, that horrific “tradition,” is long gone. No one is more entitled to not be forced to watch Monday than this UCLA team.
In 1976, when Indiana went undefeated, the Hoosiers had to survive a difficult round-of-16 game against Alabama and a nervous region final win over Marquette. Then they won their two Final Four games — the semifinal against UCLA — with ease. But those Hoosiers, the team Gonzaga will try to match Monday, never faced a scare like the one Gonzaga faced Saturday.
If not for Drew Timme, who was superb all night with 25 points and seven rebounds, coming to take a last second charge on UCLA'S brilliant Johnny Juzang (29 points), the game probably wouldn't have reached overtime.
To win, Gonzaga needed every bit of verve and guts and skill it could muster. The question now becomes: How does their exhausting escape affect Monday night?
There is no doubt the Bears, whose game ended four hours earlier than Gonzaga's, will be the better rested team. Like UCLA, they have a bevy of talented guards, whose quickness with the ball, can cause trouble for anyone — including the Bulldogs. They aren't 27-2 for nothing.
But Gonzaga's 31-0 mark isn't a fluke either. Suggs, as Few said, has a “magical aura,” and maturity well beyond what one expects from a freshman. Timme, only a sophomore, is the most improved player in the country. And Corey Kispert, the only senior starter, was quiet on Saturday, which might make him dangerous on Monday. The unsung hero for Gonzaga against UCLA was Joel Ayayi, who scored 22 points, many of them coming when his teammates were starting to look a little discouraged.
These two teams were supposed to meet a few blocks from Lucas Oil Arena in the Pacers' home arena back in December. It was called off by coronavirus issues. Now, at last, they will get to play on the sport's biggest stage.
Baylor last played in a national title game in 1948 — long before either coach, Few or Scott Drew, was born. Gonzaga played in the championship game four years ago, losing a down-to-the-wire game to North Carolina. Now it gets a chance to take the final step and make history all in what should be a dramatic last 40 minutes of college basketball's strangest season.