The only matchup between top-10 teams on the opening day of the 2024-25 college basketball season was more lopsided than most so-called buy games. If you went to bed early, congrats, because as awesome as the rematch of the title game of the 2021 NCAA Tournament looked on paper, the on-the-court product failed to match it when things tipped around midnight ET.
Final score: Gonzaga 101, Baylor 63. The 38-point win for the Zags represents the biggest margin of victory by any team in a season-opener against a top-10 opponent in the history of the AP Top 25 poll.
“I think it’s fair to say Gonzaga, returning eight or nine starters, looked like that and us, with one returning starter, looked like that,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said afterward.
Obviously, Gonzaga didn’t actually return eight or nine starters. Five is the limit. Drew was just having fun. But the Zags did bring back literally every piece that mattered except for Anton Watson from a team that won 27 times while advancing to the Sweet 16 of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. That’s why expectations are high for the West Coast Conference program that has made nine consecutive Sweet 16s and played in two of the past seven championship games of the NCAA Tournament.
“You gotta give credit to Gonzaga — great coaching, great players,” said Baylor forward Norchad Omier. “They were exploiting the mismatch. We couldn’t find a way to figure it out. So all we can do is learn from it and move on from here.”
With the win, Gonzaga is up to No. 7 in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Baylor is down to No. 17.
If you care, the only team in the Top 25 And 1 that lost Monday to a team not also in the Top 25 And 1 is Texas A&M, which fell 64-61 at UCF. As I’ve explained many times previously, I’ve found over the years that overreacting to single-game results this early in any season quickly becomes problematic. Upsets happen, particularly on the road. So, with that in mind, I’ve simply hit Texas A&M with the 10-spot auto-drop I implemented a while back that’s designed to punish the Aggies for a rough loss without completely overreacting and leaving a team unranked that basically everybody believed was one of the best 25 teams in the country less than 24 hours ago. That’s why Texas A&M is now No. 21 heading into Friday’s game with Texas A&M Commerce. For what it’s worth, the Aggies are still 13th at BartTorvik.com, 17th at EvanMiya.com and 18th at KenPom.com despite starting 0-1.
