No. 1 Baylor MBB Takes on No. 1 Gonzaga for NCAA Championship

Sun Apr 4 12:37:10 CDT 2021

Complete game notes attached.

BAYLOR (27-2, 13-1) vs. GONZAGA (31-0, 15-0)
April 5, 2021 • 8:20 p.m. CT
Indianapolis, Ind. • Lucas Oil Stadium (70,000)
WATCH: CBS and March Madness App
Talent: Jim Nantz (pxp), Bill Raftery (analyst), Grant Hill (analyst), Tracy Wolfson (reporter)
LIVE STATS: statbroadcast.com/ncaa

LISTEN: Baylor Sports Network | ESPN Central Texas
Talent: John Morris (pxp) and Pat Nunley (analyst)

No. 1 BAYLOR BEARS (27-2, 13-1)
Location: Waco, Texas
Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993)

No. 1 GONZAGA BULLDOGS (31-0, 15-0)
Location: Spokane, Wash.
Head Coach: Mark Few (Oregon, 1987)

STORY LINES
• Baylor is playing in its second National Championship game (1948, lost 58-42 vs. Kentucky in NYC).
• With a win, BU can claim its first MBB national championship and its 11th overall national title.
• Baylor and Gonzaga are meeting 4 months to the day after their Dec. 5 game in Indy was canceled.
• Monday is the 9th time two No. 1 seeds have met for the title ('82, '93, '99, '05, '07, '08, '15, '17).
• Monday is the 4th time the AP's top-2 preseason teams will meet for the title (1962, 1965, 1999) and the 2nd time teams which were AP top-3 all season meet for the title (1962 Cincinnati vs. Ohio State).
• BU seeks its first win vs. Gonzaga (0-5), first vs. a No. 1-ranked team (0-8) and first vs. a No. 1 seed (0-3).
• Baylor is 19-14 in 13 all-time NCAA Championships, including a 16-8 record in the Scott Drew era.
• Drew's .667 career NCAA Tournament winning percentage (16-8) is 8th-best among active coaches.
• The Bears have committed only 28 turnovers over the last 4 games, including 12 live-ball turnovers.
• Baylor has had 4 different leading scorers in its last 4 games (Mayer, Flagler, Teague, Butler).
• BU is averaging a +8.4 turnover margin in the NCAA Tournament (7.6 TOs/game, 16 TOs forced/gm).
• BU built a 25-point halftime lead and led by 16+ points for the final 25 minutes Saturday vs. Houston.
• BU built an 18-point lead and Arkansas didn't get closer than 4 the rest of the way in the Elite 8 win.
• Baylor has won 23 straight non-conference games (+21.6 average margin) dating back to Nov. 2020.
• Baylor is 10-2 vs. AP Top 25 teams this season, including 6-0 against AP Top 10 teams.
• BU leads the nation in 3-point percentage (.412) and is top-10 nationally in scoring margin (3rd, +17.5), scoring (6th, 82.8), turnover margin (3rd, +5.5), defensive turnover pct. (3rd, 24.6), effective FG% (4th, 56.7), offensive rebound pct. (6th, 36.9), steals (9th, 8.9) and turnovers forced (9th, 17.1).
• BU has led by at least 10 points in 26 of 29 games this year (9 of 12 games since the 21-day pause).
• Baylor has led by at least 4 points in all 59 games over the last 2 seasons (double-digit leads in 50 of 59).
• Baylor's current .412 team 3FG% is the 7th-best mark by any team in the Big 12's 25-year history.
• Baylor has played 16 of its 29 games (14-2) vs. 12 different NCAA Tournament teams this season.
• Baylor is making its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance in the modern tournament era. BU's first three NCAA Tournament appearances in 1946, 1948 and 1950 were in an eight-team, unseeded bracket.
• Baylor won the Big 12 for the first time and claimed its first conference title since 1950.
• The conference title is the 6th in program history and the 4th outright title (1932, 1946, 1948, 2021).
• Five Baylor players are shooting at least 39% on 3FGs and averaging at least one 3FG made per game: Mitchell (45%), Butler (42%), Teague (39%), Flagler (42%) and Mayer (40%).
• Davion Mitchell swept national Defensive Player of the Year honors, joining Johnathan Motley (2017 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year) as the only national award winners in program history.
• Jared Butler is the first unanimous 1st Team All-American in program history, while Mitchell (3rd Team NABC, Sporting News & AP) and Teague (3rd Team NCAA.com) also picked up All-America honors.
• Butler is AP Big 12 Player of the Year, Baylor's first conference POY since David Wesley (1992 SWC).
• Scott Drew earned AP and coaches' Big 12 Coach of the Year for a second-consecutive season.

FIRST CONFERENCE TITLE IN 71 YEARS
• Baylor won its first conference championship in 71 seasons (1950 Southwest Conference).
• Baylor has won six league titles in programs history, four of them outright – 1932 (10-2), 1946 (11-1), 1948 (11-1), 1949 (9-3), 1950 (8-4) and 2021 (13-1). The 1949 and 1950 titles were co-championships.
• Baylor's best previous Big 12 finish was outright 2nd-place last season. BU also tied for 2nd in 2010 and 2017.
• Baylor's 15 Big 12 wins last season were the most ever by a team that didn't claim the Big 12 title.

SECOND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME APPEARANCE
• Baylor is appearing in a National Championship game for the second time in program history.
• The Bears 58-42 lost to Kentucky in their previous appearance on March 23, 1948, at Madison Square Garden.

QUICK HITS
• Baylor's streak of 9 consecutive postseasons is tied as the nation's 7th-longest active streak.
• Baylor is guaranteed to finish with its fewest losses since going 13-0 in 1911-12.
• Baylor is 39-21 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last 13 seasons.
• Baylor has been top-5 ranked for 28-straight weeks. BU was top-5 for 12 weeks all-time prior to this streak.
• BU's streak of 36-straight AP pols ranked is the nation's 3rd-longest active streak and longest in BU history.
• Baylor joins Kansas as the only Power-5 schools to win 18+ games every year since 2008.
• Baylor is 53-6 since MaCio Teague and Davion Mitchell became eligible at the start of 2019-20.
• Mark Vital holds the BU record for career Big 12 wins at 45-22. The previous record was A.J. Walton's 39.
• Baylor became the first team since UNLV in 1990-91 to win its first 17 games by 8+ points.
• Baylor joins Duke, Gonzaga and Kansas as the only programs ranked No. 1 in 3 of the last 5 seasons.
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 18th season in Waco and is BU's all-time wins leader (369-215).
• Baylor is 25-1 at home over the last 2 seasons, with the lone loss by 3 points to Kansas on 2/22/20.
• Baylor is 14-3 in Big 12 road games over the last 2 seasons (rest of league is 59-99 in B12 road games).
• Baylor's 18-game winning streak tied the 4th-longest in the Big 12's 25-year history. The Bears set the record with 23 straight last season, while Kansas had the 2nd and 3rd-longest streaks – 22 in 1997 and 20 in 2008.
• Baylor signed the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history (No. 4) in November. BU inked 5-star Kendall Brown, 4-star Langston Love and 4-star Jeremy Sochan for the 2021-22 season.
• Baylor won double-digit Big 12 games for the 8th time (2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021).
• Baylor is 74-5 when leading at halftime over the last 4 seasons (44-2 over last 2 seasons, 23-0 this season).
• Baylor has won 90% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (192-21).
• BU is 53-4 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game over the last 2 seasons (141-23 last 6 seasons).
• Baylor has won 20+ games in 12 of the last 14 seasons after recording only three 20-win seasons in the previous 100 years of Baylor Basketball (1946, 1948, 1988).
• Baylor is 244-99 over the last 10 seasons, averaging 24 wins per season since 2011-12.
• Baylor's 244 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (284).
• Baylor is 335-146 since 2007-08, the first year Drew's staff had a full allotment of scholarships.
• Eight of Baylor's players either have used or are currently using a redshirt year. Four after transferring to BU – Flagler, Mitchell, Tchamwa Tchatchoua and Teague, and four as freshmen — Moffatt, Turner, Vital and Dainja.
• Ten of Baylor's 11 starting point guards under Drew have earned All-Big recognition (16 of last 17 seasons).
• Baylor is 1 of 10 teams nationally to appear in every postseason since 2012 (7 NCAAs, 2 NITs).
• Baylor has the nation's 10th-longest active streak with at least one 3-point FG made in 961 straight games — the last time Baylor failed to make a 3-pointer was more than 30 years ago, on Feb. 21, 1990 vs. Texas Tech (0-8).

Thanks,

DK

--

David Kaye | Assistant AD for Communications
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 254-709-5147

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