Well, Monday night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship has come and gone, and many of us were shocked by the outcome.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs, #1 all season, went into the tournament undefeated. This 2 week process was almost expected to be a coronation of sorts, seeing as how the Bulldogs had run rough-shod through opponents all season long.

The Zags opponent, Baylor University, had other thoughts. The Baylor Bears were the #2 ranked team all season long, and also got to the title game as expected.

This long awaited matchup was supposed to take place in December, in among all places, Indianapolis, IN. However, due to COVID-19 complications, the game was cancelled after a player and a staffer for Gonzaga tested positive. Thus, Monday night’s much anticipated clash was long overdue.

After Baylor outlasted Houston on Saturday, and Gonzaga barely got by UCLA with the help of Jalen Suggs’ half court buzzer beater, we all figured that Monday night’s final, would be just as entertaining. As it turned out, the singing of the National Anthem by various front line workers was the most entertaining part of Monday’s coverage.

The Bears blitzed the Bulldogs from the opening tip! Baylor’s Jared Butler and Davion Mitchell put on an absolute show! Butler killed the Zags from downtown, while Mitchell drove to the basket at will. Sometimes taking it all the way to the cup, and other times kicking it to an open man for the three pointer or finding a cutter in the lane for an easy bucket. Baylor’s defense was stifling, and wreaked havoc. Gonzaga couldn’t get anything going, trailing by as many as 19 in the first half.

The Zags cut the lead to 10 at the half, and in the 2nd half, briefly got the lead under 10, but then Baylor turned on the jets to finish them off and claim their first national title in Men’s Basketball in school history.

Gonzaga had the opportunity to go undefeated and become the first undefeated national championship team since the 1976 Indiana team that featured Isiah Thomas. Many teams have tried and failed to finish off an undefeated season. There was Larry Bird’s Indiana State team in 1979, the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels in 1991 that featured Larry Johnson and Stacey Augman, and the 2015 Kentucky team that featured Karl-Anthony Towns.

Those were all great teams, but the fact that no one has been able to finish off a season undefeated speaks to how difficult it is to pull off. The best players don’t hang around for more than 1 or 2 seasons. It’s hard to say no to that NBA money. With players not staying for more than a season or 2, it’s hard to build on what was done the previous season because it’s like you’re always starting over. Is that to say that we’ll never have another undefeated champ? No, but it’s so much more difficult now

Congrats to both the Baylor Bears and the Gonzaga Bulldogs. You both had great seasons, and endured probably the most challenging season in sports history due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that vaccines are available, maybe next year’s tourney will be a little closer to what we can refer to as normal. But I guess time will tell.