ANALYSIS: The Impossible became Reality
Consider the date of Aug. 22, 2003.
It landed in of one of the darkest chapters in Baylor University’s then-158-year history.
A basketball player had been murdered. The head coach (Dave Bliss) encouraged players to lie to NCAA investigators about Dennehy and that he was a drug dealer.
Such embarrassment. Such humiliation. Such hopelessness.
The NCAA eventually slammed that men’s basketball program with such harsh penalties that Baylor would not have a winning season until 2008. In fact, there was one season where Baylor only played a conference schedule.
But on that hot summer day nearly 18 years ago, new head Scott Drew believed he had the support, the vision and the drive to get this program back to a competitive level and a chance to compete for championships.
All those platitudes seemed nice and gave a beleaguered fan base a reason to have a sense of worth. Yet the sting remained.
Late in the evening on April 5, 2021 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis when the seconds ticked down and Baylor defeated Gonzaga for its first national title, 86-70, that summer of nearly 18 years ago nearly seemed like 100 years ago.
In the university's 176th year, the impossible became a reality.
Baylor cut down the nets and held some hardware. Surreal doesn’t seem to do this moment justice. Yet it will have to do.
Within these two decades, Baylor emerged from laughingstock to the most respected program in all of college basketball. Great commitment, great players and a great vision from a coach made that happen.
For sure, we can harken back to the Big 12 tournament semifinals when Baylor lost to Oklahoma State, 83-74, and wonder what in the world is going on with this thing. Have the wheels come off? Is this team going to collapse after such a promising start?
However, Drew and his players assured themselves and the fan base that maybe something good could have come from that loss to the Cowboys. They could have resurrected their defensive commitment, their return into how they play and their drive to really push toward winning a national championship.
They did that and then some. This road toward cutting down the nets was very impressive. Baylor won its six games by an average of 15.3 points. For final 129:35 of the tournament, the final 9:35 in the Sweet 16 matchup against Villanova, all of the Elite 8 against Arkansas, all of the Final Four against Houston and all of the national championship against Gonzaga, Baylor trailed for just 1:34 of that. Not only was this runs textbook, it was dominant against some really good teams, Wisconsin, Villanova, Arkansas, Houston and Gonzaga.
There are no yeah buts to this tournament run. This was a run that defined who really was the best team in college basketball.
Take nothing away from Gonzaga in its bid to become to become the first undefeated national champions since the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers (32-0) because that’s an unbelievable team. It deserved every accolade that was bestowed upon it.
However, Baylor just revealed that when it came time for the head-to-head matchup on the greatest of stages, it was the better team. There were no doubts. There were no questions. There were no naysayers.
From start to finish, Baylor throttled Gonzaga. The Zags never had a look at this game. Never.
It dominated just about every statistical category. It shot 43.5 percent from the arc. The Bears dominated the glass, 38-22. They scored 19 points off 14 Gonzaga turnovers. Gonzaga's leading scorer Drew Timme (19.2) was limited to 12 points and committed five turnovers. More importantly, Baylor was just quicker, more athletic and was the better defensive team.
Jared Butler, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player with a team-high 22, said that when he leaves Baylor he wanted to put it in a position where it could be on a same plane as college basketball’s blue bloods.
Time will tell should that happen. However, this was a sign that college basketball’s blue bloods could make some room for some new blood.
We’ve come a long way since August of 2003.