The beauty of the NCAA Tournament is in its single-game elimination format. Therein lies the drama, the tension, and the madness that college basketball fans cherish.
But what if the national title game was a best-of series? Under that postseason format, would this season have ended with Gonzaga -- now known as perfect season dreamers -- crowned the champion instead?
The answer is no, according to Steve Lavin. Baylor would still come out on top, and expose the Bulldogs' deficiencies.
"If they played a seven-game series, I still think Baylor wins in six," the former college coach and current Fox Sports analyst told the Tiki and Tierney show on Tuesday. "I think Baylor has a quickness and skill. Their speed -- draw the parallel to college football. Baylor basketball kind of reminds me of Pete Carroll's USC football teams, in terms of the speed and quickness, and just the attacking style of play. They would unnerve, discombobulate, and completely disrupt the offensive flow or timing of opponents. Alabama, Nick Saban -- speed merchants at every position.
"Then you add Baylor's foot speed and quickness and skill on offense. They made 10 three-pointers -- that stretches Gonzaga's defense. It kind of exposed the lateral foot speed that the Zags lacked, particularly [forward Drew] Timme and [forward Corey] Kispert were exposed in this game. Nothing against them, good college players. But when you look at [Baylor guards] Macio Teague, Davion Mitchell, and Jared Butler, I mean, those three are interchangeable parts. They can all pass, can all dribble, can all shoot. And then make good decisions when they were maneuvering with the dribble, in terms of reads and reacting, whether it was a pocket pass, a lob to the rim, or sending the ball back out to the three-point line.
"And [Baylor head coach] Scott Drew deserves a salute. He deployed his team well. They kind of flew a little bit below the radar because of all the focus on Gonzaga and the unbeaten season and the possibility to be the first undefeated team since Bob Knight's Hoosiers in 1975-76. But Baylor, from start to finish, dominated. And if I boil it down: foot speed, quickness, athleticism, and skill, but then deployed well. There was intelligence, as well, on display... To play at high speeds and to play with purpose and cohesiveness and intelligence says a lot about how they brought it. They had a plan, they executed it, and they basically kicked their butts."
Baylor, which drubbed Gonzaga, 86-70, on Monday night in Indianapolis, clicked on all cylinders from the opening tip until the final buzzer.
With a perfect blend of sharp shooting, stifling defense, and aggressiveness, the Bears held a whopping 19-point lead midway through the first half. And while the Bulldogs tried to trim their unprecedented deficit, the efforts were futile, as Baylor became the first team since UConn in 2014 to win the national title game without trailing.
Gonzaga was widely considered a team of destiny. They entered March Madness as the top overall seed, with a perfect 26-0 record, and cruised to the Final Four. But, the Bulldogs fell just one win shy of history, becoming the third team in history to suffer its first loss of the season in the national title game.
The entire Baylor-Gonzaga conversation between Lavin and Tiki and Tierney can be accessed in the video and audio players above.
You can follow the Tiki and Tierney Show on Twitter @TikiAndTierney and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.