Scott Drew is the anti-Frank Martin... yet just as good.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/13039577/drew-baylor-just-win-and-bear-it-despite-the-aspersions KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Maybe there is no B.S. to Scott Drew. Perhaps he isn't that Eddie Haskell, sickly sweet to your face and an anaconda behind your back.
Maybe that's who the boyish, 39-year-old coach of Baylor really is: Buoyant. Bubbly. Bad-ass recruiter.
Those assertions won't go over well in the bowels of the Sprint Center during the Big 12 tournament this week because Drew is not a popular man with at least a portion of his conference peers. That's only an issue right now because Baylor matters. The program that had burned to the ground with the murder of a player and the horrific misconduct of Dave Bliss has been rebuilt by the relentless Drew.
Make that reborn. The Bears are headed to the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years and only the sixth time in their history. They followed up last year's run to the Big 12 tournament title game with a run to the NIT championship game. The Bears are ranked (No. 21) and ripe for another run, looking like a Sweet 16 team at least.
That's the jumping-off point for the Big 12 tournament that began here Wednesday. Pretty much everything else exists in that netherworld of accusations, recruiting, hurt feelings and bruised egos.
They've used the term "negative recruiting" in regards to Drew like it was an assault charge. They've looked down their nose at him for hiring Dwon Clifton, who was John Wall's AAU coach. Baylor narrowly missed out on national recruit Darrell Arthur in 2006, at a time when many thought Baylor had no chance, or no business, in landing him. Arthur went on to win a national championship with Kansas.
It was here a year ago that usually mild-mannered Texas coach Rick Barnes told the New York Times, "There's a line that he [Drew] knows that he can't cross with me. He knows that. He definitely knows that."
That from a member of the coaching fraternity whose profession is so rife with shady dealings that they can't see past Drew's tip-toeing up to that line. Drew has admitted that he has been too aggressive at times, but he has apologized or tried to. Earlier on at Baylor, he sent out flyer that asked recruit Anthony Randolph: Since 2004, which of these Big 12 coaches has signed a McDonald's All-American? Pictures of Bobby Knight and then-Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie were crossed out.
Maybe they're not being hustled these days so much as outhustled.
"If I answer that then they're going to be mad, thinking I outwork them," Drew said, relaxing after dinner at Anthony's Restaurant in downtown Kansas City prior to Thursday's conference tournament opener.
But what if it's true? What if your staff shows up for a game to scout a player in the offseason?
"Baylor," Drew said proudly, "stays for the whole day. We're going to be first in the gym so when [prospects] walk in, they're going to see us first."
What if your coach drives an SUV? So does Drew. He's the white dude tooling around Waco in a black Escalade. That's not a big deal on the surface, but look close. If the whole package -- a Caddy SUV with custom rims -- happens to appeal to recruits, then that's another Baylor advantage.
"Coaches are going to be [upset] if they hear that," Drew said.
But this is what Drew was brought in to do. He was hired from Valparaiso, where he was an assistant for his father, Homer, then the head coach for one season. Known as a recruiting whiz, Scott Drew had landed several talented players from overseas. At Baylor, he can afford to recruit more domestically. Top-five player Perry Jones will join the Bears next season.
Sophomore forward Quincy Acy got home from his prom at 7 a.m. He had an hour to sleep before his mom told him he better get his behind to church at 9 a.m. Drew, assistant Jerome Tang and then-assistant Matthew Driscoll were there to show their faces and support. If they were going to be there to see him, he had better be there to be seen.
"I was a zombie," Acy said.
Later, he became a Bear.
So did Fred Ellis. The sophomore remembers Driscoll, now at North Florida, coming to one of his games in Sacramento, Calif. Ellis said gunfire broke out in the parking lot after the game.
"Coach Driscoll, you know, is full of jokes and laughter," Ellis said. "He turned completely around. He was scared."
Oh, and that Clifton/John Wall thing. Wall didn't come to Baylor, so what's the fuss?
"The irony was everyone was upset," Drew said. "Why would they be upset? We didn't get John Wall. If you hire a guy just to get a player, that would be a detriment more than anything else."
It's time, then, for the accusers to do something more than carp about Drew. If the haters have an NCAA violation, bring it. If not, shut up.
All this ill will and all you've got is negative recruiting?
"The last thing I would ever want to do is judge people," Drew said. "I'm not high and mighty as a coach. I know one thing and that is, I can sleep a lot better at night knowing that to the best of my ability I'm helping prepare young people for life, and hopefully heaven."
We all cool with that?
Apparently not. When Drew took his team off the court during Kansas player introductions in Lawrence, it drew the ire of the basketball etiquette police. The truth it, the move was brilliant. Why subject your team to 100 years of 120-decibel history played out on the video board when you can be going over the checklist before tip?
Recent meetings with Texas define what Baylor is at the moment. Pesky, bordering on Next Big Thing. Barnes beat Baylor the first 24 times he faced the Bears at Texas. The Bears have won the last three, including a sweep this season accented by a 10-dunk effort Saturday from the 6-foot-7 Acy in Waco.
Ten dunks?
"I like to dunk and it's what I do," Acy said, "so it just came."
Combine that with Texas' stunning fall from the No. 1 ranking and there is clearly some rancor. Texas is used to patting Baylor on the head like it was an obedient little brother. After a long slumber, Baylor is showing some spunk.
"Fights, blood, tears, everything people on the outside can't see."
That's how 6-10 center Ekpe Udoh summed up last summer's pick-up games in Waco.
"Arguing, physical, fights," said the Michigan transfer. "People wanted minutes. You have to leave it on the floor. Then you laugh it up in the locker room."
Like its coach, the Bears have dueling identities. Baylor is the only private school in the Big 12, the largest Baptist institution in the country. From the burned-out shell of the Bliss regime has come a program that is in the top 10 of the APR, the NCAA's Academic Performance Rate that measures graduation rates.
On the court, they have what few other teams do: a shot-blocking big man who can score (Udoh), a dangerous outside shooter (LaceDarius Dunn) and a steady senior point guard (Tweety Carter). Udoh, nicknamed "The Nightmare", is fourth nationally in blocks. Carter, Baylor's first McDonald's All-American, is sixth nationally in assists. Dunn is second in Big 12 scoring averaging 19.2 points.
They have taken every slight and used it to fuel their season. Picked 10th in the preseason, they finished in a second-place tie in the conference. After a 24-win season, no Bear was named first team all-Big 12.
"I know I'm not a third-team-type guard," Carter said.
They take you apart and they pray, a lot. That's understandable. Dunn, Udoh and Carter recently addressed 200 players in a recreational basketball league sponsored by the Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco. Afterward, 21 players committed their lives to Christ.
What did you expect from congregation whose pastor is Brian Dunks?
There is a no-cussing policy at practice. Violators have to do pushups, Drew included. ("The goal," he said, "is not to do them often.") The team spent part of Wednesday visiting young patients in Children's Mercy Hospital, a short drive from the Sprint Center.
A doctor dressed in green wanted is picture taken with the team. Far from friendly territory, it looked like the Bears had found a supporter.
"Take it easy on my Jayhawks," the doc said.
You take your friends where you can find them. Assistant Mark Morefield followed Drew from Valpo. One day they were in Las Vegas recruiting while watching on TV as the drama played out at Baylor seven years ago. A month later, they were on a private jet to be introduced at the Baylor news conference.
"For him to go to a program that is facing [NCAA penalties], where they were talking about shutting down the program," Morefield said. "Hey, that's a leap of faith."
That also might be the deciding vote on the Eddie Haskell vs. anaconda debate.
"What you see is what you get," Morefield said. "Real honest, real genuine."
