Four Questions with Scott Drew

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Does Baylor have a magic formula?

There was a time when basketball didn’t matter to Baylor. It made just one NCAA Tournament between 1950 and 2008. That’s hard to fathom today.

The Bears haven’t missed the Big Dance since 2016. Since 2008, it and Kansas are the only two power 5 schools to win at least 18 games every season. They’ve ranked in the Top 10 for five straight years, something only Kansas, Duke and Gonzaga have done. And their 59-21 Big 12 record over the last five years is the second-best of any power conference school in that span.

It speaks to the consistent excellence built by coach Scott Drew, who took over in 2003 and now has a beautiful new facility, a team capable of reaching a Final Four, a culture of winning. He discussed all that and more in the latest Four Questions.

Q: Baylor’s been one the most efficient offense teams in college hoops since 2019, ranking 20th or better in adjusted offensive efficiency. You’ve been an elite offensive rebounding team even longer (since 2014), which you usually see in program that make offensive rebounding an entire philosophy. That’s not Baylor, which also ranks as an elite shooting team. How have you gotten those two to mesh so well?

Scott Drew: Well, if we found a magic formula, we definitely don't wanna give it away. (laughs) I’ll start with the generic answer and that is, it starts with great players. And what I mean by great players, is that they care about winning. They don't care about doing the tough things because rebounding involves contact, effort, toughness, and that the players are the ones that gotta do that.

Second, I think players always learn from other players more than they learn from the coaches. Coaches can stress rebounding, but they’re the ones that put in the work and get it done. We've had upperclassmen that have passed that on to the underclassmen. This is what we do or how we approach misses. That comes by practice. If you're a great rebounder and I'm trying to block you out, I'm seeing how you do it and then now I'm able to learn from that because I'm facing it every day.

Q: You’ve had impact freshmen the last three seasons in Jeremy Sochan and Kendall Brown, then Keyonte George, and now Ja’Kobe Walter and Yves Missi this season. How would you compare Ja’Kobe’s and Yves’ impact this season to what those other three did?

Scott Drew: We've been blessed to not only have really talented freshman but freshmen that have, that have fit our culture and embrace what we teach. And because of that, we've been able to win where a lot of times in this day and age — where it's new players, transfers or freshmen — if they don't embrace what you want coming in, they don't have time to learn it over three or four years.

Our staff’s done a great job identifying players that fit what we do and how we do things. The guys that have come in have helped the other freshmen. Like Jeremy helped Keyonte, Keyonte helped Ja’Kobe. Everybody helps each other.

Q: When you hear about what UConn’s done this season — losing three starters from a national champion team, but reloading and on track to be a No. 1 seed — do you ever think, “Hey, that sounds familiar?” given you lost four starters from your 2021 title team and earned a No. 1 seed a season later?

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