Final Four Preview

The Final Four matchups in the men’s NCAA tournament are set to take place on Saturday, April 3rd. No. 1 seed Gonzaga is rolling right now off a win against USC and are ready to take on No. 11 seed UCLA at 8:34 p.m. No. 1 seed Baylor will play against No. 2 seed Houston at 5:14 p.m.

Baylor is making its first appearance in the Final Four since 1950. They are coached by Scott Drew and led by guards, Macio Teague, Davion Mitchell, and Jared Butler. Butler can make it rain from deep and is an all around great player. He was the runner-up for the Big-12 player of the year and a first-team all American. Those three guards average 46 points per game helping the Bears lead the nation in three point percentage.

The Houston Cougars are making its first appearance since 1984’s Phi Slama Jama team. They are coached by Kelvin Sampson and led by their defensive ability and excellent guard play. They have the best defense remaining in the tournament holding teams to 57 points per game. The Cougars are leading the nation in field goal percentage defense. They can also dominate on the boards like they did in the sweet 16 against Syracuse. Jarreau is the AAC defensive player of the year and limited Buddy Boeheim to 12 points. They don’t just play defense as they are led by Dejon Jarreau and Quentin Grimes offensively. He brings so much energy to the Cougars and can really lock down the opponent’s best player. Baylor has played tougher opponents all season long facing 12 top-30 NET-ranked teams since January. Houston has only played two since January. Look for who Jarreau defends when the ball at tip off and see if he can limit one of the three-headed monsters on Baylor.

Gonzaga is still undefeated and if they win out, they will be the first undefeated squad since the 1975-76 Indiana team. The Bulldogs are a scoring machine averaging 91 points per game. This will be head coach Mark Few’s second time in the final four. Gonzaga went to the National Championship in 2017 when they lost to North Carolina. UCLA has been to final four 19 times and the last time they won a championship was in 1995. The last time UCLA were in the final four was with superstars Russel Westbrook and Kevin Love losing to Derick Rose and Memphis. Fifteen years ago, No. 3 seed UCLA beat No. 2 seed Gonzaga led by Adam Morrison.

Gonzaga is 14 a point favorite against UCLA on Saturday. Gonzaga is destroying teams in the tournament and looking like a big favorite to win it all this year. Gonzaga will be the first team to ever go undefeated since the expansion to 68 teams. This is unprecedented. Here are some statistics to demonstrate how potent Gonzaga is this year. Numbers are courtesy of NCAA.com:

• They are looking to become just the second team in NCAA history to be ranked No. 1 throughout the entire season
• Gonzaga’s record of 61-2 the past two seasons is the best in the nation in the past two years
• They have won 27 consecutive games winning by double digits
• They have won 29 of their 30 games by more than 10 points
• Their average winning margin of victory is 23 points per game
• The Bulldogs also rank first nationally in scoring offense (91.6), field goal percentage (54.9) and two-point percentage (63.7).

UCLA’s Johnny Juzang’s 28 points pushed the Bruins past No. 1 seed Michigan. But the bigger story was how dominants they were defensively. They held Michigan to 49 points. It was an ugly game from start to finish. On Tony Kornheiser’s podcast, Jay Bilas called it, “A rock fight” and went on to praise UCLA’s great defense. UCLA barely squeaked into the tournament as one of the play-in games against Michigan State. THAT GAME WENT INTO TO OVERTIME! Now they are in the final four facing off against one of the best teams of all time in Gonzaga.

You can catch the games on CBS this Saturday. Thank you for reading!