Unbelievably Believable

“This is unbelievably believable. “It's unbelievable because in the moment we're all amazed when great things happen. But it's believable because great things don't happen without hard work.”

The words above come from Robert Griffin III's Heisman Trophy acceptance speech back in 2011.  Those same words seem appropriate as a description of my reaction to the fact that the BAYLOR BEARS ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS IN BASKETBALL!

Much has been said and written about the job that Scott Drew has done with the Baylor program.  Some people have called it the best rebuilding job in college basketball history.  But to "rebuild" something implies that there was a foundation or something there from which to rebuild.  In the case of Baylor basketball, I'm not sure that's really the case.

Many of you may be aware of the sordid goings on that ultimately led to Scott Drew's arrival in Waco.  His predecessor, Dave Bliss, was fired after one player murdered another player and then Bliss tried to cover up illicit and impermissible tuition payments by painting the deceased player as a drug dealer.  It was a disgusting and disturbing situation which led to Bliss's termination as well as the termination of the athletic director and the resignation of the university president, not to mention the tragic death of the player.  At that point in time, considering all of the awful things that had occurred, the Baylor head coaching job wasn't just a bad job - it might have been the worst major conference job in the country.  Scott Drew accepted the job knowing that the program was going to be handed serious penalties (including an unprecedented ban on all non-conference games in the 2005-06 season) and scholarship reductions.  Needless to say, it was a daunting task and he was not walking into a good situation.

But, even if you said aside the mess that the program became under Bliss, Baylor was a moribund program with little history of success or prestige.  Sure, they went to two Final Fours in three years between 1948 and 1950, but then they followed that up with decades of irrelevance.  Sure, they had a few really good players who went on to have successful NBA careers (Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson and Brian Skinner), but that's about it.  Consider the following:

• Between 1951 and 2010 (60 seasons), Baylor had zero NCAA tournament wins
• Between 1951 and 2007 (57 seasons), Baylor only had 1 NCAA appearance
• In the 2,197 games of Baylor basketball history prior to Drew's arrival in Waco, Baylor had only been ranked in the Top 25 for two of them

It wasn't like Scott Drew was walking into a program that was emerging from a scandal but had a robust basketball history.  He was taking over a program that was emerging from a terrible scandal that had next to nothing to offer in terms of attractiveness to sell to recruits.  No recent prior success, no storied history. But Scott Drew took it on and did so with a smile.  Even through those first few years when he was forced to routinely play multiple walk-ons because of scholarship limitations.  Even through those first three seasons when the Bears went 21-53 and were the doormats of the Big 12.  He believed that he could build not just a competitive program but a championship-caliber program.

That belief first bore some semblance of fruit in 2008 when Baylor won 20 games and was selected for the NCAA tournament for the first time in 20 years.  The Bears' stay in the NCAA tournament was short-lived, getting knocked out in the first round by Purdue.  They followed that up in the 2008-09 season with another 20 win campaign and a run to the championship game of the NIT.  But Drew and the Bears finally broke through on a national level in 2010 when they won a school record 28 games and advanced to the Elite Eight where they lost a heartbreaker to Duke after some questionable, late game officiating.  ("It was a block!!!")  The Bears returned to the Elite Eight two years later when they set another school record with 30 wins.  Drew still had his doubters - he wasn't the best at making in-game adjustments and some highly touted recruits didn't seem to develop during their time in Waco - but he had at least made Baylor basketball relevant again and proved that it could compete not just within the Big 12 but on a national scale. 

The Bears won an NIT championship in 2013, followed by four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, including two Sweet 16s.  But the best was yet to come...

Anchored by the best backcourt in America, the Bears went on a two year run of excellence that pushed them to the upper echelon of college basketball programs.  In 2019-20, the Bears at one point won 23 games in a row - including a blowout win over Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse - in route to their first ever #1 ranking and a 2nd place conference finish.  They were on the cusp of a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament when COVID hit and the tournament got cancelled.  Baylor fans everywhere were despondent.  The best team in school history never got a chance to show what they could do on the biggest stage.  Some of their much ballyhooed backcourt seemed headed to the NBA and it looked like the Bears' window to finally get back to the Final Four was closing.

...And then a funny thing happened.  Those incredible guards decided to keep the band together and come back to Waco for one more year.  And, as good as the Bears were in 2019-20, they were even better in 2020-21, routinely trouncing opponents with a shut down defense and an explosive offense that led the nation in 3 point field goal percentage. They finally ended Baylor's conference championship drought with the first conference title since 1950 - a run of 71 years.  But that was just the appetizer before the main course; just the preview of coming attractions before the main event.  Baylor didn't just go on to make the Final Four and win a national championship.  They did emphatically.  Consider the following:

• In their last 7 halves of basketball (2nd half of Sweet 16 vs. Villanova, Elite Eight vs. Arkansas, Final Four vs. Houston and national title game vs. Gonzaga), Baylor trailed for a TOTAL of less than 5 minutes.
• They never trailed against Arkansas or Gonzaga, leading from buzzer to buzzer.  While they did briefly trail early on against Houston, they were up by 25 at halftime.  They didn't just win those games, they completely dominated their opponents, removing any doubt about who the best team in the country was.

And this Baylor team looked and played nothing like some of their predecessors.  While Baylor's two Elite Eight teams were led by a lot of size and length than made their 2-3 zone very effective, this year's team played a tenacious man-to-man defense.  While Drew was oft criticized in his early years for not being a very good Xs-and-Os guy and not being very good at making adjustments, his team thrived this year in the 2nd half of games.  I can't tell you how many times this year the Bears were locked in a close game at halftime only to come out and blow the doors off the opponent in the 2nd half.  Drew showed that he can coach not just well enough to win games and make the NCAA tournament.  He showed that he can coach well enough to win a national championship...something that seemed like a complete pipe dream before he came to Waco.

Remember the fact I shared earlier - that in 2,197 games of Baylor basketball over 99 seasons prior to Drew's arrival, the Bears had only been ranked in 2 of them?  In Drew's 18 seasons in Waco, they have been ranked for 263 games.  Quite the difference, right?

When Scott Drew gave his introductory press conference, he talked about not just winning games but winning conference championships and national championships.  To many, that was the typical "win the press conference" spiel, the sort of thing that pretty much every coach says in pretty much every introductory press conference.  At the time that Drew uttered those words, they seemed far-fetched, unrealistic, unbelievable.

Now, 18 years later, those words aren't just believable -- they are reality.  The Baylor Bears are on top of the college basketball world...and I'm still in shock.  But I'm also very, very happy.  For Baylor students, alumni and fans all around the world.  For Baylor players past and present who strove to reach that mountaintop and helped pave the way.  But, most of all, I'm happy for Scott Drew, a relentlessly positive, upbeat Christian man who walked into about the worst college basketball situation possible and through hard work, patience and unyielding faith helped turn the seemingly impossible task into a real life happy ending.

Sic 'em Coach Drew and sic 'em Bears!