Baylor at the top of its game
Bears win all tourney games but one so far by double digits as first final since 1948 looms
Baylor guard Jared Butler abridged basketball to two basic tenets.
“Sometimes the ball goes in,” Butler said, “and sometimes the ball doesn’t go in.”
Baylor’s net result in the Final Four semifinals against the University of Houston?
“Tonight, the ball went in,” Butler said.
Time and again. The topseeded Bears hammered the second-seeded Cougars 78-59 on Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, in Baylor’s top performance to date of the NCAA Tournament, considering what was at stake.
“Houston doesn’t give you anything,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “You have to be really good, and that first half was about as well as any team could play against Houston.”
The Bears roared to a 4520 halftime lead before the Cougars could briefly enjoy their first traipse into a Final Four since 1984.
“They made a lot of shots — a lot of tough shots,” UH guard Marcus Sasser said of the Bears, echoing Butler’s fundamental belief on what most determines a game’s outcome.
Baylor (27-2) advances to its first title game since 1948, when the NCAA Tournament consisted of eight teams.
“A coach is like a parent,” said Drew, in his 18th season nurturing the Bears. “When you see the siblings happy, you’re happy. To see fans happy, your players happy and Baylor nation happy, you can’t get much better than that. … The fans that we had (here), we appreciate them making travel arrangements to be here to support us.”
And based on Saturday’s 19-point victory, the Bears won’t have to make travel arrangements for the next two days. The 68-team NCAA Tournament was held in and around Indianapolis because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now it’s down to a lone game Monday night in Lucas Oil Stadium.
“It’s (on to) the next game, and that’s why we’re successful and in the championship game,” Drew said of quickly tucking away the UH victory. “If you do too much celebrating or thinking, then you’re not dialed in for the next opponent, and you’re getting sent home.
“I’m just excited our whole travel party gets to stay in the bubble for a couple of more days and have an opportunity to play in the biggest game all year, that every team sets out at the beginning of the year wanting to do.”
Baylor has won four of its five NCAA Tournament games by double digits, and by an average of 15.2 points. The lone single-digit victory was a nine-point win (8172) over Arkansas in the Elite Eight.
“Baylor is clearly the best team we’ve played,” UH coach Kelvin Sampson said. “They may be the best team we’ve played in the seven years I’ve been here.”
The Bears started the season 18-0 for the first time in program history before losing by double digits (7158) at Kansas on Feb. 27. That initial setback occurred not long after a 20day pause for the Bears because of COVID-19 issues within the program.
They lost two of their final six games entering the NCAA Tournament — at Kansas and in the Big 12 tournament semifinals against Oklahoma State — before finding their footing again defensively and from long range.
Baylor is the nation’s top 3-point shooting team at 41.1 percent, and the Bears made nearly 50 percent (11 of 24) against the Cougars, including 4-of-5 by Butler in the lopsided first half.
“If we’re not where we were (before), I can’t see the difference,” Drew said of the Bears gliding back into a groove — this time when it counts most. “Credit these guys for really buying in on the practice days we’ve had to get better and putting in the work to get back to what they were. At the end of the year, a lot of people don’t want to practice hard.
“They want to save their legs for games; they’re thinking about what they’re doing after the season.”
Baylor did neither, wearing out UH (28-4) over 40 minutes. Tournament most valuable player candidate Davion Mitchell, the national defensive player of the year, this time starred in the Bears’ passing game. His 11 assists set a Baylor record for an NCAA Tournament game, and he became the first player in 34 years to reach double-digits assists with zero turnovers in a Final Four contest.
Rubbing brine in the Cougars’ wounds, Mitchell also became the fifth player in Final Four history to record more assists than the opposition (11 to 10 for UH).
“That’s what makes him so good, he’s a two-way player,” Drew said. “He’s the defensive player of the year, but on the offensive end, he can score it and create for others. It was a tremendous effort and outing.”