When Scott Drew took over as the men’s basketball coach at Baylor University on Aug. 22, 2003, he made a loud and bold statement during his introductory press conference..

“At Baylor University, I didn’t come to go to the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “We came to win games at the NCAA Tournament. We came with the chance to win a national championship at Baylor University.”

On Monday night, Drew and Baylor realized that dream when the Bears dominated Gonzaga, 86-70, to end the Bulldogs’ undefeated season and capture the first national championship in program history.

Gonzaga entered the game 31-0 on the season and hadn’t lost since Feb. 22, 2020. They were seeking to become the first undefeated national champion since Bob Knight’s Indiana team went 32-0 in 1976.

But Baylor, appearing in its first title game since 1948 when Harry Truman was President, had other ideas.

“Yeah, we weren’t alive back then,” Drew joked to Jim Nantz of CBS
VIAC
after the game, referring to 1948.

Pointing to the Baylor fans, he shout: “The city of Waco deserves this. Hey Texas, we got a national championship, the state deserves it.”

This was just the second title for Texas after Texas Western won the title in 1966.

Using a dominant defense, the Bears raced out to leads of 9-0 and 35-21 before taking a 47-37 halftime lead. Gonzaga was coming off a 93-90 overtime win against UCLA in the national semifinals on Saturday night and may have felt a hangover. Or maybe they were just overwhelmed by Baylor’s activity, aggression and athleticism on defense.

“Just an awesome, awesome effort from Baylor,” Baylor coach Mark Few said on CBS. “We couldn’t get anything going on either end. We couldn’t get consecutive stops on the defensive end. When we did get stops, it was really hard to generate offense consistently because they were just so aggressive with their coverages defensively, we couldn’t get any rhythm there. I mean, hats off to them, they dominated both ends of the ball.”

Said Drew: “We play with a culture of joy and they came out, they fed off of each other, we got off to a great start and, defensively, we’re pretty good.”

The Bears outscored the Bulldogs 39-33 in the second half to capture the title.

Drew praised Few while adding that his team was also on track for an undefeated season before a Covid pause in late February that led to the team’s first loss against Kansas.

“If you’re going to war, I’m taking these guys,” Drew said.

Jared Butler led the Bears with 22 points and seven assists, MaCio Teague scored 19 points and Davion Mitchell had 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. Mark Vital went for 11 rebounds and six points while helping to hold Gonzaga star Drew Timme to 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Jalen Suggs, the hero for Gonzaga in the UCLA game, led the Bulldogs with 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting after drawing two early fouls.

Butler and Teague both returned to Baylor after testing the NBA draft waters last season.

“That was one of my goals, and I know some of my teammates’ goals, just to leave a legacy at Baylor, create Baylor as a blue blood,” Butler said before the final.

Drew, 50, won his first NCAA championship and becomes the 11th active head coach to earn a ring. He joins Tony Bennett, Jim Boeheim, John Calipari, Tom Izzo, Bill Self and Tubby Smith among coaches with one title. Mike Krzyzewski (5), Jim Calhoun (3) and Rick Pitino (2) and Jay Wright (2) lead the way.