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The Breakfast Buffet: Scott Drew took Baylor from purgatory to ecstasy

Who’s hungry for college basketball?

Here’s today’s installment of “The Breakfast Buffet”, a daily column that can be found here every single morning getting you caught up to date on everything that’s happened from the day/night before and everything that’s going to happen in the next 24 hours.

Mangia!

Things To Sample

Scott Drew led Baylor from purgatory to ecstasy 
18 years ago, Drew took over a program that was linked to controversy. He then didn’t have a winning season until his fifth year. Now he’s a coach that has won a national title against a team in the title game — Gonzaga — that was perceived to be among the best in college basketball history. It’s not just that Baylor won a national title — it’s how it won a national title. Up until Saturday against UCLA, no team in college basketball looked like it could push Gonzaga to the brink. The Bears did much more than that — they pulverized the Bulldogs. Baylor’s 86-70 win cemented the Bears’ turnaround since Drew’s arrival as one of the greatest turnaround stories in the history of sports.

America has run out of adjectives for Baylor’s perimeter
The Bears’ five guards — Davion Mitchell, Jared Butler, MaCio Teague, Adam Flagler, and Matthew Mayer — all had their fingerprints on Monday night’s dominant performance against Gonzaga. Those five players combined for 71 of the team’s 86 points and physically dominated the Bulldogs’ perimeter on both sides of the ball. This was a mismatch that was evident as soon as the game started. 

Gonzaga was national title or bust
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, they’re now going to join the company of other great teams who played deep into the NCAA Tournament with an undefeated record, but ultimately came up short. Much like Indiana State in 1979, UNLV in 1991, and Kentucky in 2015, this Gonzaga team will not be remembered among the best to ever play the sport because it did not conclude its season with a perfect record. Despite going 31-1 and winning one of the great NCAA Tournament games in history on Saturday against UCLA, Gonzaga may ultimately be remembered by the way that it was dominated from tip to finish against Baylor in the national title game. 

North Carolina kept it in the family
The last time that the Tar Heels tabbed a coach who didn’t have direct ties to their fabled basketball tradition was 1952 when they hired Frank McGuire. They weren’t about to break the trend in 2021. North Carolina’s decision to name Hubert Davis as its next head basketball coach on Monday ensures that the Tar Heels are again keeping things in the family. Since McGuire, North Carolina has had four head coaches — Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, Matt Doherty, and Roy Williams. All four either played or spent time as an assistant in Chapel Hill before occupying arguably the most prestigious post in all of college basketball. 

Texas-Texas Tech is set to become a fierce rivalry
The Red Raiders’ decision to hire Chris Beard’s longtime assistant Mark Adams as head coach on Monday just days after Beard took the Texas job ensures that there’s going to be no love lost when these two programs meet moving forward. It’s very rare when a coach takes another job in his own league, but Beard has. Now his former assistant — Adams — is succeeding him in Lubbock. Adams has regularly been credited for being the steward of Texas Tech’s vaunted defense over the last few years, which has been one of the primary reasons for this program’s incredible success. A word to the wise: don’t miss the two regular season meetings between these two programs moving forward.

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