In the words of Jon Rothstein: "This is March".
With the absence of March Madness last year, we all missed the magic, the madness, the bracket-making, and of course, the upsets that March Madness brings every single year. March Madness this year had no shortage of upsets to get the 2021 NCAA Men's basketball tournament where it's at now. From the Oral roberts, Oregon State, and UCLA's cinderella stories to big name programs such as Illinois and Ohio State going down early, March Madness always delivers on its name and brings the madness.
With the Final Four over, let's break down the games.
2 Houston - 59 vs 1 Baylor - 78
This matchup featured two tough teams that give opponents nightmares. This game, Houston was the one getting the nightmares from Baylor. This game was also Baylor Men's Basketball's first Final Four game since 1950 and Houston's first Final Four game since 1984 when Hakeem Olajuwon and Phi Slama Jama were there.
Houston got off to a quick start with an 8-6 lead, but Baylor got rolling quickly. By halftime, Baylor led Houston by a score of 45-20
Marcus Sasser was just about the only player keeping Baylor somewhat respectable the whole game. He provided 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists. On Baylor's end, Jared Butler provided 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. As a team, Baylor outdid Houston in just about every stat. Baylor's 52.7% field goal percentage could not be touched by Houston's 38.2% field goal percentage. Baylor's 45.8% three point percentage was also superior to Houston's 31.6% three point percentage. Baylor even out rebounded Houston 28-25. Houston had 10 turnovers. Baylor had 8.
This matchup proved to be no contest for Baylor as they beat Houston by a score of 78-59.
11 UCLA - 90 vs 1 Gonzaga - 93
In this David v. Goliath matchup, we had the 11 seed UCLA going up against the 1 seeded juggernaut Gonzaga. Throughout their tournament run, UCLA has had to scrap for their wins (2 of them being overtime wins) while Gonzaga has won all of their tournament games by 15 points or more (Including beating 16 Norfolk State by 45 points). This was UCLA's first Final Four game since 2008.
UCLA was having a cinderella run. They went from struggling to get into the tournament to now playing in the Final Four. Things like that are normal in the world of College Basketball. If UCLA's run has taught us anything about them, it's that they are resilient.
The best thing that UCLA had to do to have a chance at beating Gonzaga was to limit the turnovers. They basically had to play near-perfect the whole entire game. They did happen to have one less turnover than Gonzaga. UCLA had 9 while Gonzaga had 10. The three point shooting of UCLA definitely came in handy for this game, with the Bruins going 8/17 from beyond the arch compared to the Bulldogs' 7/21. The Bruins also out rebounded the Bulldogs 31-23. Just another stat that shows the amount of fight that his UCLA Bruins team had. They fought tooth and nail throughout the whole game. Many thought that this game was going to be a blowout in Gonzaga's favor. But UCLA's resilience kept it close.
Towards the end of the game, UCLA had trouble getting Johnny Juzang (29 points) the ball down the stretch due to great defense by Jalen Suggs of Gonzaga. When they finally could get him the ball, he grabbed his own miss off a layup and put it back in to tie the score at 90-90. Then, the very next play, Jalen Suggs then hit a game winning half court shot for the ages to win it for Gonzaga and send them to their first final four since 2017.
It is a shot like that that will be remembered for ages. It is up there with Kris Jenkins' buzzer beater for Villanova to win the National Championship in 2016 and Christian Laettner's buzzer beater against Kentucky in 1992 in the Elite 8. Truly a great shot.
"This is March" - Jon Rothstein
Gonzaga will be taking on Baylor in the National Championship tomorrow on April 5 at 9:20 PM
Comments