Matt Severance has locked up the 2021 NCAA Tournament title game for Baylor vs. Gonzaga.
The highest seeds The Gonzaga Bulldogs opened the 2020-21 season with the national No. 1 team to try and end the season with the Baylor Bears in the 2021 NCAA Championship game on CBS on Monday. Because Larry Bird’s Indiana State led in 1979 and a Monday victory made Gonzaga the first unbeatable champion since Bob Knight’s 1976 Indiana team went 32-0, the Bulldogs are the first to play a game title with a record that is not barterable. Baylor (27-2) is the ninth time since the 1979 NCAA began seeding the national title to a couple of No.1 seeds.
The Lucas Oil Stadium Tip-off is set for 9:20 p.m. ET. The Bulldogs are listed as a 4.5-point favorite by William Hill, while the over-under of the Gonzaga vs Baylor odds is 159 for the total points scored. You must see SportsLine’s Matt Severance NCAA Tournament NCAA 2021 predictions before finalising any picks from Baylor vs. Gonzaga.
A well connected writer with a handicap since 2005, Severance has a great run and has called UCLA in the final four against Gonzaga. It is in a blistering roll of 138-101, which is $2,674-$100 bettors in college basketball picks. Everyone who has followed him has gone a long way.
In the 2021 NCAA National Championship Game, he has now set his sights on Baylor vs. Gonzaga. To see his picks, you can go to SportsLine. Here are various university basketball odds and trends for Baylor versus Gonzaga:
Spread: Gonzaga vs. Baylor-4.5
Over-under: 159 points for Gonzaga against Baylor
Gonzaga vs. Baylor monetary line: Baylor +175 Gonzaga -200
ZAGS: The Bulldogs won 14 games on a site that is straight neutral
BAY: This season the Bears are 6-0 against AP Top 10 teams
Why Can Gonzaga Cover?
The Zags can beat a team in so many ways, as shown by a couple of plays that have been stunned by the half-yearly UCLA team of Jalen Suggs. Suggs played a huge defensive game late, blocking one end of a bunker before he found a striking Drew Timme with a brilliant bounce pass for the equivalent of a four-point swing. Timme had been responsible for sending the game to the OT, taking a 1.1-second charge left despite four fouls.
The 6-foot-10 Timme finished Saturday with 25 points and is one of Baylor’s most important match-up problems. Not only does he lead the Bulldogs in score (19.2 points per game), rebounds (7.1) and shooting percentage in this century, but he is the third player to score at least 20 points in four straight NCAA games in this century, shooting 50 percent. For the season, Gonzaga shot 55.1% with 37 of 63 shooters (58.7) vs UCLA.
Why Can Baylor Cover?
Without the usual contributions of star guard Jared Butler, an all-American Associated Press 1st team and their top scorer, the Bears reached the Final 4 at 16.6 per game. Butler has averaged 13.0 points and had difficulty shooting in the first four NCAA games after converting 44.4 percent during the normal season to 6 out of 24 3-point attempts. Saturday changed, as Butler scored 17 points in the first half and scored 4 out of 5 3 points.
Butler has been one of four players who shot Baylor, the nation’s best three point team, at least 40 percent from a distance (41.2 percent). Adam Flagler and Matthew Mayer, who averaged 17.3 points and shot 8 out of 16 in the win on Saturday over Houston, can also take two more guards from the bench. MaCio Teague is the scorer of the team’s 2 (15.8 points), which can hit 10 3-pointers against Texas Tech on 7 March but can be lethal from outside.
How To Pick Baylor vs. Gonzaga
Severance leans on the entire system, and a critical X-factor has been found that has him jumping across one side of the spread. Only SportsLine shows the selection.
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