Stephen A. Smith should probably stick to predicting NBA games, because he wasn’t close with the college basketball National Championship.
The Baylor Bears made Stephen A. Smith look silly on Monday night. While it’s not tough to make Smith eat his words, the First Take host assumed Mark Few and Gonzaga would take down Baylor with relative ease. Baylor, meanwhile, played arguably their most complete game of the season, and defeated Gonzaga running away for an 86-70 victory.
What’s even more surprising than the result, however, is Stephen A. Smith voluntarily apologizing for how bad his opinion was. Trust us, he’s had a lot of bad takes. Even Smith recognizes that Baylor’s victory was so resounding that he needed to acknowledge it to save face.
Congrats to @BaylorMBB. Never thought I’d be this wrong. This was a beatdown. Wasn’t even close. Superior guard play. Men vs boys in the post. Attacked early & often. Never let up. Significantly the better team. Totally wrong on this.
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) April 6, 2021
Baylor Bears defeat Gonzaga Bulldogs to win 2021 National Championship
56 combined points from the Baylor trio Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell and Macio Teague led the way for the Bears. Baylor came out firing, getting off to a quick 7-0 lead and never looking back. Unlike against UCLA, Gonzaga could not overcome a slow start against what proved to be a vastly superior opponent. To put things simply, the Zags were outclassed and ran out of gas.
Baylor is among the best defensive teams in the country, and they were able to hold Gonzaga to 70 points and just five made shots from behind the arc. The Bears, meanwhile, made 10 three-pointers at a 43 percent clip. That’s tough to beat on any night.
Had Stephen A. known the final stats, perhaps he would’ve made a wiser choice. Yet, given the status of all of our brackets, we’re not ones to talk either.
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