Elusive perfection

 Ugly plaid jackets of some combustible weave are still the rage this morning, because in Indiana there is still Indiana and don't you forget it. Don't you dare.

And so 45 minutes north of where a legend with hideous fashion sense once ranted and raved and bullied his Indiana Hoosiers to 32-0, Gonzaga failed to match last night. A Baylor team with frightening stores of firepower, will and focus punished the Bulldogs from pillar to post, jumping out to a 9-0 lead and curb-stomping perfection with a wire-to-wire win.

The final was Baylor 86, Gonzaga 70, and 31 wins and one defeat for the Zags. And 45 years and counting for anyone to do what the Hoosiers and Bob Knight did in 1976.

It was a different time then, and not just because people thought plaid sports jackets were a good look. There was no three-point arc, and the game was more studied and less athletic and less freewheeling as a result. There are still offensive sets in the game today -- check out how well Gonzaga moves the basketball when it's right -- but they are different sets with different desired goals. It's no longer about merely finding the easiest shot close to the rim; now it's about doing that or finding the open look on the arc.

Baylor did both with bloodless precision last night, and Gonzaga never had a chance. The Zags looked out of rhythm from the outset, and there's probably truth that some of it was the residue of their epic overtime semifinal against UCLA. But a lot of it was Baylor brutally strangling Gonzaga's usual lovely flow at one end, and never seeming to miss an open look at the other.

In the immediate aftermath, some people picked at the bones of that and concluded The Zags were always a counterfeit unbeaten. It was an easy take and, like most easy takes, both hugely unfair and hugely witless.

Truth is, Mark Few put together an exquisite team this year, and until that semifinal against UCLA no one seriously challenged it. If you could watch the Zags play and not conclude you were watching something special ... well, maybe basketball isn't your thing.

Unfortunately for Gonzaga, Baylor was even more special. In the Final Four, the Bears blitzed their two opponents by a combined 35 points. It doesn't get more dominant than that, or more impeccable.

And because it was, plaid's still in season. Deal with it, fashionistas.