Last time y’all came down to central Texas to get a basketball coach it was a disaster and I think you may be repeating the same mistake in its mirror form.
I am, obviously, a Baylor homer. I’d love for Drew to stay, but if he goes, then I wish him the best. I just think Drew is a terrible fit basketball-wise at KY.
Ironically, I think the comparison to BCG actually holds some water, Drew is just the inverse. Here’s what to expect:
He is not a disciplinarian nor will he hire one onto his staff (polar opposite of BCG). He is very much a positive affirmation guy and he expects the whole staff to be that way. He will carry and enforce a no cursing rule in his program (not a big deal, but indicative of the culture he wants). The play will be sloppy or bone-headed at times. Ironically KY may be a place that covers for him if he starts getting some of those high basketball IQ home grown KY and Indiana boys.
Fundamentally, you have to appreciate that Baylor is a football school. Grandma in the stands can discuss all day long why some nose tackle was lined up wrong by 3 inches, but Baylor fans will see a dead eye shooter in the corner and not understand he’s stretching the floor while calling for his benching. That allows a lot of inefficiencies in Drew’s teams to fly under the radar but you guys will have him under a microscope.
Recruiting will be great. Especially on the perimeter. You will likely miss out on gifted big men. Drew wants to run a 3-guard offense with a stretch, lanky 4 and a slightly undersized but Uber strong and athletic 5 who can screen, rim run, rebound and block shots. A guy like Quincy Acy or pre-injury Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua is prototypical. Jalen Bridges and Matthew Mayer are what he likes at the 4.—stretch 4s who aren’t really bangers inside but can be pressed into service. Gifted interior bigs won’t get a feature role and they stay away. So the bigs are usually developmental projects.
At its best, his offense is a better version of what Jay Wright was doing at Nova. It is basically a three man weave in the backcourt trying to get into a favorable pick and roll or iso situations (see Gonzaga championship game).
Defense is where the weakness will show up. Each year Baylor fans will debate and defend his zone, but my guess is that won’t fly in Lexington. The defensive weakness is a function of his recruiting philosophy. Drew is close to Fran F. and Fran has openly stated that Drew prefers to recruit natural offensive talents on the theory that you can always teach defense. That theory may be right, but it is hard to execute with one-and-done guys. Indeed, the National Championship team played great D but had all upper classmen. We have failed to play good defense when featuring lottery pick freshmen in the backcourt.
Where he’s lost an edge: the transfer portal. Pre-portal, Drew was adding a lot of value to the team by getting talented transfers that were young and would sit out a year. He was really great at going to lower conferences and swiping their underclassmen player of the year winners (Adam Flagler and, I believe, Macio Teague). He’d also find developmental projects who would go to work while sitting out a year (Davion Mitchell). The national championship team had an 8-man rotation and only 3 guys were home grown. The transfer portal has taken away his edge there as the dynamics of transferring are different now and it is a much more competitive market.
I hope you guys love him as much as we did.
