Tramel: Baylor & Scott Drew say thanks to the Big 12 with NCAA Tournament success

The Baylor-Houston semifinal in the Final Four on Saturday night matched schools that a quarter century ago were fighting for the last seat in the life raft from the sinking Southwest Conference. 

Houston was the public university, trying to join 11 other public schools. Seemed like the best fit. 

Baylor was trying to avoid the outcast fate of fellow private schools Rice and Southern Methodist and Texas Christian. 

Baylor’s political clout won out – and Baylor spent the next 15 years trying to prove it didn’t belong in the Big 12. 

Futile football. Blah basketball. Scandals of historic hideousness. 

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You couldn’t have blamed the Big 12 had the conference voted for expulsion and immediately called Houston. 

I don’t know if Baylor ever thanked the Big 12 for its patience while the Bears got things ironed out in Waco. But it’s done even better. Baylor has shown its thanks. 

The Bears routed Houston 78-59 and plays top-ranked Gonzaga for the national championship on Monday night. For the second straight NCAA championship game (Texas Tech 2019), the Big 12 is in the final game.  

“That was one of my goals, and I know some of my teammates' goals, just to leave a legacy at Baylor,” said star guard Jared Butler. “Create Baylor as blue blood.” 

Well, let’s not get carried away. Baylor is no blueblood. Big 12 basketball has only one of those, Kansas, and there are less than 10 from sea to shining sea. 

But Scott Drew has built Baylor basketball, from the depths of the appalling Dave Bliss scandal of 2003, into a consistent winner that makes national waves on a regular basis. 

And Baylor football became a national-title contender under Art Briles, then recovered from Briles’ blind-eye-to-sexual-assaults culture, so much so that the Bears played in the Sugar Bowl a mere 15 months ago. 

Baylor has gone from Big 12 welfare to shining member. 

Drew is a big part of that. He took over the Bears in summer 2003, after former Baylor player Carlton Dotson had murdered teammate Patrick Dennehy, and Bliss hatched a plan to paint Dennehy as a drug dealer and coverup NCAA rule violations. 

Drew’s first three Baylor teams went a combined 21-53, including a 4-13 season in 2005-06 when the Bears were restricted to conference games only. 

Baylor’s talent soon increased, and peers quietly derided him as a cutter of recruiting corners and an inferior coach. Media picked up on those cues. 

We all look stupid now. Drew’s recent elite teams were not built with blue-chip recruits but with splendidly-crafted rosters and players who were developed on campus in Waco. 

The Bears are 16-8 in NCAA Tournament games under Drew, and among his victims are Kelvin Sampson, Jay Wright, Jim Boeheim and Chris Mack. If Drew can’t coach, he’s got a funny way of showing it. 

Some have labeled this Baylor building job the best in college sports history. I still vote for Bill Snyder and Kansas State – no one has labeled the Waco story a “miracle,” and that’s exactly what we call the Manhattan transfer from worst to first. 

But still. Baylor basketball’s transformation has been impressive. 

“Every day you're grinding,” Drew said of building from those early, dark days. “And you really don't look back. You just keep pressing forward. 

“Been so blessed to have unbelievable players that have bought into what we like to do with the program, tremendous assistant coaches that have sacrificed so much time, hard work, sweat to get us here.” 

Drew is not an I-told-you-so type of guy. Heck, he might never have told us in the first place, much less gloated about it. 

The Baylor basketball coach comes by it honest. His father, Homer Drew, was one of basketball’s classiest gentlemen while coaching Valparaiso.  

And at the zenith of his career, Scott Drew remained true to form. Armed with the chance to rip all his many critics and take a stand for the once-beleaguered Bears, Drew instead just enjoyed the moment. 

“When you have that family atmosphere, and everybody pulling for everybody, good things can happen,” Drew said. “And obviously they've happened for us.” 

This Baylor story is good things happening to good people. And good things happening to the conference. 

The Big 12 stood by Baylor. Baylor has said thank you in the best way possible. 

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today. 

NCAA MEN'S TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP

When: 8 p.m. Monday

Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis

Watch: CBS