The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Why UHart’s Gallagher knew Baylor was a champ
John Gallagher saw the bracket pop up on the CBS Selection Show at the same moment as every other college coach, player and March Madness pool player in America.
No. 1 Baylor.
No. 16 Hartford.
“My first thought was this is the first time since the Whalers that the city of Hartford is on the national stage and, man, I was proud,” Gallagher said. “My second thought was, oh crap, it’s Baylor.”
Late Monday night, after Baylor had crushed Gonzaga, 86-70, for the NCAA college basketball championship, everyone from Spokane to Storrs was saying the same thing.
Oh crap, it’s Baylor. “The greatest rebuild job in the history of college basketball was Jim Calhoun at UConn,” Gallagher said. “It was a farm, OK? The second best rebuild job is Scott Drew at Baylor, unequivocally, and if he wins a couple more he’ll have the best.”
In preparation, Gallagher said he went diving for all the video he could get his hands on of Baylor’s conference games. An East Coast guy, he joked he had to mentally correct himself: “It’s the Big 12, but there are only 10 teams. That was my first hurdle.”
After Gallagher and his coaching staff had done all their strategizing, his team had hung tough with Baylor for most of the first half before finally succumbing, 79-55, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Gallagher walked into the dressing room at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“I said to our guys, ‘We just lost to the team that’s going to win the national title or be the runner up. So keep your head up. Looking back in three weeks, you’ll
see what we just played against.’ ”
When Gallagher joined the postgame media call, one of the first things out of his mouth was Baylor and Gonzaga are the two best teams in the nation. Five games later, no one can say he was wrong.
“You could see it,” Gallagher said. “You could feel it.”
Every game has its own narrative, of course. Yet it is worth examining that Hartford was ahead of Baylor 14-13 when the under-eight minute official time out was called. Gonzaga, looking for the first perfect season since Indiana in 1976, was down 31-14 at that same point in the title game. The Bulldogs had fallen behind, 29-10, a few minutes earlier.
Looking for an answer why?
Gallagher wouldn’t identify the person. He just said it was a friend in the business. He said the friend didn’t tell him what to look for, either.
“He just said, ‘Watch the Iowa State game against Baylor,’ ” Gallagher said. “At midnight on Sunday night, I started watching. At 3 in the morning, I told my staff.
“The best game plan by far in the Big 12 was Iowa State and they were the worst team in the Big 12. Sometimes as coaches we don’t realize some of the best plans come by the teams that are really creative.”
The Cyclones were 0-18 in the Big 12 and finished 2-22 overall. Coach Scott Prohm was fired at the end of the season. Yet with Baylor coming off a COVID pause on Feb. 23, the Cyclones threw a big scare into the then-unbeaten Bears before falling, 77-72.
“I probably know 300 Division I coaches,” Gallagher said. “Scott Prohm is one of the 50 I don’t know. I’m telling you he had the best plan. If you go back and study the game, it’s how you’d have to beat (Baylor). Iowa State should have beaten them.
“They also had something called the Vital rule. They wouldn’t leave the paint. When (Mark) Vital was screening, Gonzaga was switching and hardhedging. Now you have Vital as the free offensive rebounder. It killed them.”
Vital grabbed eight offensive rebounds.
“Mark Few is a friend, but you can’t guard them hard-hedging on a ball screen against them. We went under. People say you can’t go under the best 3shooting team in college basketball. Well, it was 14-13, with 7:30 left in the first half. Say whatever you want.
“You can switch to surprise (Baylor), but I don’t think you can switch as a main defense. Then they exploit the mismatch and that’s what they did all night. The thing Iowa State gave me and what we did in the beginning of the game very effectively is you go under the screens because everyone stays intact.”
Gallagher said people texted him from all over: “You guys had a great plan. What was it?’ It was you cannot be put in rotations against Baylor. Baylor’s jump shots from 3, over 70% are catch-and-shoot rhythm shots. That’s why they shoot 41 percent overall from 3.
“The 3 kills you, but what really kills you are the easy layups they get on the roll, because you’re too slow getting back. You can build your defense however you want to build it, but my thing is when you play a team like that you cannot be put in rotation.”
Gallagher said Baylor was among the top teams in the nation in grabbing offensive rebounds and kicking them out for 3. The Bears did it throughout the tournament.
“They are backbreakers,” Gallagher said. “You have to drill scrambling off their offensive rebounds. That’s a specialty, but you’ve got to do it.”
At that under-eight timeout in the first NCAA Tournament game in the school’s Division I history, Gallagher turned to his staff and said, “It’s 14-13. It should be 14-5.”
Nearly four minutes later, Hartford trailed by only four. And, pfft, it was gone. Foul trouble hurt. D.J. Mitchell went out only 16 seconds into the game with an ankle injury. That hurt. A 13-1 run before halftime hurt the most.
“The last four minutes, we played really bad,” Gallagher said. “But the reality is we put one of the better halves against them in the tournament. They opened it up on us because they are that good offensively. Traci Carter did do an insane job on them defensively. After the game, the respect they had for him was amazing.
“Defense, that’s what transformed our program. We can defend. But Baylor’s skill level and toughness was just too much for us. Davion Mitchell is the most underrated guard I ever went against. He’s an NBA guard. Physicality, strength, the joy he plays with, man, he was just smiling out there.”
UMBC shocked Virginia in 2018 — the only time a No. 16 beat a No. 1 — but Gallagher pointed to the broken wrist De’Andre Hunter suffered in the ACC Tournament. He’s convinced you have to get to the 15-2 line to have a chance.
“You’re playing a team where you don’t have to play perfect,” Gallagher said. “You’ve got to play great. There’s a difference between great and perfect. Baylor is the most athletic team. Baylor is the most skilled team. That’s what wins a national championship.
“UCLA gave Gonzaga such a tough game (in the semis) and Baylor’s speed and athleticism overwhelmed them. They probably got back to the hotel room at 2 in the morning after UCLA and were exhausted and they looked exhausted.
“Still, if they played 10 times, Baylor might win seven. Post-COVID, Baylor was struggling to get their legs back for a while. I think the loss to Oklahoma State won them the national title. Oklahoma State played a switching zone. A matchup zone, passing guys through, not that it confused them. They weren’t in flow yet and they still only lost by a couple of baskets.”
So you played UConn and you played Baylor this season, John. A pretty big gap for the Huskies to get back to the top?
“You may laugh, but they’re not that far,” Gallagher said. “Danny Hurley had improved the program so much in such a quick time. The reality is the jump shot and the skill level UConn needs to get is the only area. I think they’re recruiting that way and they’ll get there that way.”