How the Final Four teams arrived here

Drew took the Baylor job in 2003 when no one wanted to touch it. The Dave Bliss era ended in shame and chaos after the cover-up of a murder of one of his players by another player. Players were given full release to leave, the program was on probation and was dangerously close to the death penalty (one year, they were banned from playing non-conference games). Drew stuck with it and Baylor stuck with Drew. After four really bad seasons, the Bears were starting to build. 

Baylor was set to have a huge week to test how good this team could be as the Bears were to take on Illinois and Gonzaga in back-to-back games. Against, the Illini, the Bears blew open a back and forth game with a 27-11 run and would win, 82-69. Adam Flagler came off the bench to lead Baylor with 18 points. It was Scott Drew's first game of the season due to quarantining. 

That Gonzaga showdown wouldn't happen as the Zags had to cancel just hours before tip-off due to COVID protocols. The two schools looked to reschedule the game but it never materialized. Baylor's next opponent, Nicholls State, also had to cancel their game which created a hastily scheduled game against Stephen F. Austin. After beating the Lumberjacks, the Bears would go on a week-long pause before continuing their domination.

Then came early February when the program went three weeks between games due to COVID issues, which clearly disrupted the Bears' momentum. They looked rusty when they returned to action in a win over Iowa State, and after a canceled game against West Virginia, the Bears' perfect season was ended with a 13-point loss at Kansas. 

With the Bears looking like they've gotten their groove back, they found themselves in a heated battle with West Virginia in Morgantown. Down two with 13 seconds left, Jared Butler hit a layup with two seconds remaining to tie the game. Baylor would pull away in overtime for the 94-89 victory, restoring some of their swagger back. 

It isn't often in sports when we get something happening for the first time in seven decades, but that's what we got Monday night when Baylor earned their first Final Four berth since 1950. Baylor jumped all over Arkansas in their South Region final and looked as if they were going to run away with the game. A Razorbacks run in the second half would eventually carve the lead down to five, but Baylor's defense took over and the Bears went on a 10-1 run that would ice the game. 

Gonzaga opened the season across the country against Kansas in the Fort Myers Tip-Off on Thanksgiving Day. Gonzaga was the preseason No. 1 going up against a Jayhawks team that was ranked No. 1 when the season was shut down last March. The Bulldogs hung 102 on the Jayhawks as three players scored over 20 points. 

Gonzaga's 87-82 win over West Virginia is the only time all season the Zags didn't win by double digits. The Zags actually trailed by nine in the first half of this one, and they went back and forth all game long in one of the better games of the season. The Bulldogs took the lead in the second half and hung on for the win. Joel Ayayi led the way with 21 points and 7 boards. 

As mentioned earlier, the highly anticipated Gonzaga-Baylor game was postponed (and later canceled) just hours before tip-off due to positive cases within the Gonzaga program. The Bulldogs had COVID issues for a while prior to the December 5th game ... including a deleted tweet of the team celebrating Mark Few's 600th win with a player who tested positive after the game. The program shut down for two weeks.

No. 1 Gonzaga's two-week pause ended just in time for a huge game against No. 3 Iowa in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Zags used a 23-9 first-half run to control the game and cruised to a 99-88 victory. This was Jalen Suggs' breakout game, as he scored a season-high 27 points as he hit 7-of-10 three-pointers. Of the Zags' first four games, three were against top 11 teams and they won each one. Aside from a game against Virginia a week later (which the Bulldogs won by 23), Gonzaga wouldn't face another ranked team for the rest of the regular season. 

BYU got three chances to give Gonzaga their first loss ... and darn near did so in the West Coast Conference championship game. BYU had a 14-point lead at one point in the game and an 8-point lead with nine minutes left in the game. But Gonzaga did what they've done all year and went on a run -- this time a 29-11 run -- to win the game. Gonzaga became the first team since the 2015 Kentucky Wildcats to enter the Final Four with a perfect record. 

The Cougars may be in the Final Four, but they've played just one ranked team all year to get there. Houston jumped all over the Red Raiders, running out to a 27-9 lead before coasting to a 64-53 win. In a defense-dominated game, the Cougars held Texas Tech guard Mac McClung to just 3-of-11 shooting.

With the season just four games in, the Houston Cougars had to pause all activities due to COVID-19 protocols. Head coach Kelvin Sampson missed the Cougars' December 5th game against South Carolina, which would be the last game for two weeks as the program shut down. They would return to action on December 20th against Alcorn State, where they'd be without several of their rotation guys. Late in the season, they'd have two games moved (one canceled, one postponed) due to other school's COVID-19 issues. 

This could have been where it all fell apart. Mills, who was voted the AAC Preseason Player of the Year, announced on January 3rd that he would be stepping away from the Houston program. Mills was dealing with an ankle injury, but it turned out he wanted to leave for another situation. Mills would announce he would be transferring to Florida State. He played just four games for the Cougars this year, averaging 9.8 points (as a freshman, he led Houston in scoring). 

As the Cougars were rising up the rankings (they were ranked 5th for this game) and fighting for control of the AAC standings, they laid a complete egg against last place East Carolina. The Pirates would finish just 2-10 in league play, but one of those wins was on this day, 82-73. The normally stout Houston defense gave up 82 points to ECU (the Pirates made 11 of 23 threes). After this effort, the Cougars were on alert.

Houston's run to the Final Four has been against four double-digit seeds, with their second-round game against Rutgers being the closest the Cougars were to bowing out. Rutgers led by 10 in the second half and held a 3 point lead with less than two minutes remaining, but Houston would score 13 of the final 15 points of the game and squeak out a 63-60 victory. Tramon Mark's and-one with 24 seconds left in the game gave the Cougars the lead while Marcus Sasser's two free throws sealed the win. 

We've all seen how the pandemic has visibly affected this college basketball season, but there's an emotional and mental aspect that we didn't always pay attention to. UCLA forward Jalen Hill missed games and ultimately left the program due to personal issues. The junior was one of the best rebounders for the Bruins but had lost his starting job this season and was struggling with the rigors of this unprecedented season. On the court, the Bruins were able to add freshman Mac Etienne to help with the rebounding but this is a very stark reminder of how much these young men have had to deal with so fans can enjoy college basketball (while the schools crave the much-needed revenues). Hopefully, Hill, and student-athletes like him, can get to a healthy place again. 

Gonzaga hasn't lost a game all season. Baylor lost twice. Houston has three losses on their record. UCLA, on the other hand, came into the tournament on a four-game losing streak.

The losses don't look as bad when looked at in hindsight. Road losses to Colorado and Oregon before a one-point defeat to rival USC in the regular-season finale. Then the Bruins played Oregon State and lost by four which, at the time, looked like a really bad loss. Those four teams who beat UCLA went 9-4 in the tournament and comprised a quarter of the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. Still, those losses tossed UCLA into the First Four round of the NCAA tournament. 

The Bruins are trying to become the first team to win seven games in the NCAA tournament ... and it all started with a First Four matchup with Michigan State. The game was hyped as a matchup of two elite programs that had disjointed seasons and placed in the "play-in" section of the big dance. This game was very disjointed, as Michigan State rushed out to an 11-point halftime lead before UCLA began chipping away at the lead before taking a 67-66 lead with under six minutes remaining in overtime. The Bruins would find themselves down five with 1:29 remaining when a couple of Johnny Juzang free throws and an "and-one" by Jaime Jaquez sent the game into overtime. There the Bruins outscored the Spartans 9-3 as a hobble Juzang hit two jumpers to begin the extra period and lead them to a 86-80 victory.

While UCLA came into the tournament at a No. 11 seed, their first three wins in the big dance (Michigan State, BYU, and Abilene Christian) weren't all that shocking. Their toughest test awaited the Bruins in the Sweet 16 as they faced off against Alabama, the only power conference team to win both their league's regular-season and tournament titles. Both teams went punch for punch late in the game with UCLA taking a three-point lead with just seconds left in regulation. That's when Alabama's Alex Reese hit a long three before the buzzer to send the game into overtime. That kind of gut-punch could have rolled over into overtime but UCLA didn't allow that to happen. The Bruins scored 23 points in the overtime period to coast to a ten-point win. 

Johnny Juzang scored 28 of UCLA's 51 points in the Bruins' 51-49 win over Michigan in the East Regional final. He became the first player to score over half a team's points in a regional final win since Oscar Robertson did so for Cincinnati in 1960. In a Final Four filled with chalk (two No. 1 seeds, one No. 2), UCLA injected a bit of a Cinderella aspect by becoming the second "First Four to Final Four" team in history.