Could Scott Drew leave Baylor for Indiana at the end of the season? | Yahoo Sports College Podcast

Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss Baylor’s climb to the top of the college basketball mountain, and if the man who led them there, Scott Drew, could be on the move to the Hoosier state after the season ends.

Video transcript

DAN WETZEL: Scott Drew, who is at Baylor and has built Baylor up from the rubble of a murder scandal. I mean, when you think of the Baylor scandal, you don't think of this one. But there was the teammate murder. In his first year, they were not allowed to play non-conference games. I mean, this was a disaster.

And they are now potentially a national-- could easily win the national championship this year. He grew up in-- he went to Butler. He was from Valparaiso where his dad was the head coach at Valpo. And he was the head coach for a year at Valpo. Recap the column or whatever, if I didn't already do it. Your thoughts on whether Scott Drew would ever take the Indiana job and then whatever else you got.

PAT FORDE: Yeah, the interesting thing to me when I wrote it was how many people were like, no way. Baylor's a better job than Indiana. And it's not, in my opinion. But Baylor doesn't care about basketball that much. They care a little, but they don't care that much.

They care about football. It's still Texas, OK? If you want to be the big dog at a basketball school in a state where you can win it all, you go to Indiana.

PETE THAMEL: A couple of thoughts. The evolution of Scott Drew from like the biggest pariah amongst power conference coaches. Remember, he and Rick Pitino had a big kerfuffle very, very early in his time. He was mocked for hiring John Wall's AAU coach or brother, and then John Wall didn't go there. He had some very famous public missteps, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say he was probably, as he was coming up the ranks, the most mocked, vilified, disrespected coach in those ranks. Would you agree with that, Pat?

PAT FORDE: Yes. Knight went after him publicly. Rick Barnes went after him publicly. Yeah, Pitino was mad at him over Juan Tello Palacios, I think. Yeah, there was some stuff. There was some stuff with Scott Drew.

PETE THAMEL: There was a lot of stuff. And give Scott Drew--

DAN WETZEL: He was a young, inexperienced coach who learned on the job in the Power Five because nobody was taking the job, right?

PETE THAMEL: Yes.

DAN WETZEL: Yeah.

PETE THAMEL: Yes.

PAT FORDE: Yeah.

PETE THAMEL: Yes.

PAT FORDE: Yeah.

PETE THAMEL: And, look, Billy Donovan was controversial during his times at Florida. Disruptors are often controversial. But even five years ago, if you had said Scott Drew would be a candidate in Indiana, like the last time around for example, I think-- it's interesting how his reputation has changed and evolved during that time.

DAN WETZEL: I think you got a great point there. And I think if you're Baylor-- and Mack Rhoades is very smart AD-- Scott Drew has a greater value to your school than most coaches. Because you can't do this, OK? This is not "just add water" job. He built it.

Again, he's winning without exceptional talent. The thing about everyone getting upset at Scott Drew, it's not like he just loaded up with all these all-Americans and stole everyone's recruits. He won with a bunch of second-tier guys in the state of Texas. There's no talent in Waco.

PAT FORDE: Right.

DAN WETZEL: He's done a great job and continually improved at being a coach to where he's a really good coach now. And he did it slowly. Incredible positivity. Scott Drew is like a relentlessly positive guy. And he stayed. He didn't jump at the first thing.

If you're Baylor and you want to be good at basketball, you don't let this guy go. This is your guy. Because you're not just gonna be able to say, oh, he's gone. We'll just grab this other coach around, and we'll just keep this machine running. No, you got no proof that that will ever work.

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