Backcourt is backbone for Baylor’s tourney run
INDIANAPOLIS — The only reason the backcourt of the Baylor University men’s basketball team can’t be considered a true brotherhood is the blood coursing through the veins of the three players who form the talented group.
Whether they were declaring together their intentions to enter the NBA draft pool or withdrawing from it, transferring from other schools or helping newcomers acclimate to coach Scott Drew’s program, Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell and MaCio Teague have done just about everything together over the past couple of years.
That includes leading the Bears (27-2) to their first national championship game since the 1940s, and Monday’s much-anticipated showdown 9 p.m. showdown on CBS with Gonzaga (31-0) — the only team that kept them from ascending to No. 1 in the national rankings all season — probably wouldn’t have happened had those three not returned to Baylor.
Teague was the first to declare for the NBA draft last spring, shortly after the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments were called off due to the coronavirus outbreak. Butler, who had an All-America season, dropped his name in the hat a couple weeks later. Mitchell might have done the same if scouts cared as much about defense as they do offense.
All three came back, though. Each had his own reasons, but one in particular tied them together: The trio knew they would have a chance to win the program’s first national championship.
“I don’t think the COVID ending was, like, a big reason why everybody came back,” Butler said, “but I think we all explored our options equally and we wanted to see where we were at in our basketball career. And we just made the
decision to come back, and we felt like, each one of us felt like coming back was the best option.”
It certainly was the best situation for Baylor.
Along with Mark Vital, who decided around the same time to return for his fifth season, the Bears wound up bringing back just about their entire lineup from a team that spent time at No. 1 during the 2019-20 season. And if not for the pandemic putting a stop to everything, the Bears could have been chasing their Final Four dreams 12 months ago.
“I remember when it got canceled,” Butler said, “it was like a tornado hitting our town in Waco, Texas, and just destroying everything. It was like, ‘What?’ It was so crazy. We just couldn’t understand it. We couldn’t fathom it.”
Teague, who began his career at UNC-Asheville before becoming one of the nation’s best 3-point shooters with the Bears, was the first player to declare for the draft and the first to opt out. Butler, who had been projected as a mid-second round pick, decided just days before the pushedback August deadline to return to school.
Except for Drew, perhaps, nobody was happier to hear it than Mitchell, the third of the Three Musketeers. The transfer from Auburn was just starting to flourish and now would have his buddies to help him get to the next level.
All three earned All-America votes this season: Butler was a firstteam pick, Mitchell made the third team and Teague received honorable mention.
“If you let Davion tell it,” Teague said with a smile, “he’s going to say he’s the reason I came to Baylor. But on a serious note, he did text me and say that if I came here, he felt we could make it to a Final Four. And we’ve done that.”
When the Bears looked into the stands on Saturday night, mixed among the thousands of cardboard cutouts in the lower section of Lucas Oil Stadium — and behind the masks required for fans to attend — were three members of last year’s team cheering them on in their semifinal against Houston. Devonte Bandoo and Freddie Gillespie graduated and Tristan Clark retired from basketball due to injuries, the pandemic having short-changed all of them of a once-in-alifetime March Madness experience.
“We did talk to our team before we went out and said that Freddie and Devonte and Tristan were all in the stands and how much they wish they had this opportunity, but they’re here to cheer us on,” Drew said after the Bears cruised to a 78-59 victory. “And moments like that make you reflect and think you feel so bad for the guys that didn’t have that opportunity and never will, but at the same time you feel so blessed and fortunate these guys are this year.”
Through five games in this NCAA tournament run, Baylor’s average margin of victory is 15.2 points, with only one of those games decided by less than double digits. Gonzaga, the 68-team bracket’s overall No. 1, has won by an average of 19.8 points — and that includes the Bulldogs’ number taking a hit with their 93-90 overtime win against No. 11 seed UCLA in Saturday’s late semifinal.
Gonzaga is also in the title game for just the second time, having finished as the 2017 runner-up, and coach Mark Few is tasked with having his players ready less than 48 hours after an emotional victory that came down to a miracle shot, with Jalen Suggs banking in a buzzer-beating heave from close to midcourt.
Mitchell, nicknamed “Off Night” because anyone he guards seems to have one, will be tasked with containing Suggs, who has averaged 14 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in the tourney. He’ll do his part to represent the Baylor brotherhood well again.
“My job is just to slow them down, not to keep them from scoring,” Mitchell said. “Everyone’s really good at this game. My job is just to limit that.”