Biggest Winners and Losers of the 2021 NCAA Tournament
By Matt Melton
The NCAA Tournament has passed, and we finally have a champion. Now comes the part where we look back at the past month of madness to see which teams had a successful trip to Indianapolis and who didn’t, or in other terms who “won” and who “lost.” So let’s do it, here are three winners and losers from the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
Winner – Baylor Bears
We start the list with the most obvious, the 2020-2021 national champion Baylor Bears.
Baylor completely dominated previously undefeated Gonzaga from start-to-finish on Monday night to win 86-70 to bring home the program’s first national championship. While the Bears certainly dominated the Zags in all areas of play on Monday, “dominance” was a common theme for the Bears NCAA Tournament run.
The Bears’ average margin of victory was 15.3 PPG through their six tournament games, with their lowest margin of victory being a 9 point win in the Elite 8 over 3-seed Arkansas 81-72. The Bears dominated throughout, and it wasn’t against bad teams either.
Aside from 16-seed Hartford and 9-seed Wisconsin in the first two rounds, Baylor defeated 5-seed Villanova, 3-seed Arkansas, 2-seed Houston, and 1-seed Gonzaga over their next four games to cut down the nets.
Baylor was treated to some phenomenal performances throughout the tournament, in particular from Most Outstanding Player Jared Butler and Davion Mitchell. This team was deep with talent, and showed it throughout their stay in Indianapolis looking overwhelming to opponents at times.
The Bears were consistently among the top two teams in the country for the entire season, but they left no doubt as to who the top team was at seasons end. It’s the 2020-2021 national champion Baylor Bears.