2021 NCAA Tournament

[Grit]

Baylor really plowed through the NCAA tourney field - beat 5 kenpom top 20 teams with only Arkansas keeping the final score within single digits. Davion Mitchell is unreal defending the ball.

 

[uncy12]

That was rather underwhelming. I thought Baylor would win but thought we were in store for one of the best title games in a long time. Instead we got an absolute ass beating

 

[2001Dukechamps]

Great shooting + great offensive rebounding.

Who knew Scott Drew not giving a shit about post-ups and just running a modern offense of generating open perimeter shots and sprinkling in PnR sets for his roster of perimeter players who are capable of beating their defenders off the dribble would work.

I'm sure Roy and John "without an inside presence you're a fraud" Calipari watched this game tonight and was absolutely mystified at how Baylor won.

 

[Pantone287]

Gonzaga's AdjEM falls something like 2 points to 36.48, which means 2015 UK still reigns supreme with their 36.91.

It'll be real interesting to look back on this Gonzaga team in five years to see what kind of NBA talent they actually had - and same with Baylor. For now, I'm not sure whether the correct narrative for tonight should be:

• Gonzaga was overrated and their other P5 wins were fluky.
• Gonzaga was as good as hyped, but for some reason (undefeated season pressure, Few, etc.) just collapsed mentally and underperformed, and would win 6+ out of 10 vs Baylor under normal circumstances
• Gonzaga was as good as hyped, but Baylor was simply better and would have best anyone else by 30 tonight.

If I had watched only tonight, without context, I would have assumed the first bullet was correct, as they just didn't look like they belonged on the same floor physically. But then again, USC and UCLA were P5 teams that finished #6 and #13 KP, and they also handled plenty of good P5 teams early in the season.

 

[rome8180]

I think it was 2 and 3. For every great team, there's probably a play style uniquely designed to give them problems. For Gonzaga, it was a really physical, aggressive opponent. They were also probably a bit mentally drained from their win the other night.

To win a title, I think you need to avoid whatever your Kryptonite is. For example, in 2015 Duke didn't have to play a single team that was really great at attacking in the pick and roll.

 

[rome8180]

Also, I felt like Baylor played a pretty flawless game. While Gonzaga looked "overmatched," I don't think that proves like they always would have been. How many Duke teams have we seen get absolutely punked by an inferior team? Some of those same Duke teams went on to win a title and didn't look physically overmatched the rest of the way.

I wonder: If the Gonzaga-Baylor game in December hadn't been canceled, would Gonzaga have been more ready? They might have lost that first matchup, or even if they won they might have had more sense of what to expect from Baylor physically. This is where I come back to their conference hurting them.

 

[deepdarkblue]

This is still a thing

Tbf, Arlo is a UK fan. He doesn't have many things to be happy about these days, so has to rely on outdated memes to make himself feel better about his sad and miserable life.

 

[dukeboy911]

Really hoping the ratings for this tourney were low