Gameday Thread: Baylor Looks to Rebound against No. 7 Houston

He's still probably gone though to another college program. Someone will pay him, and he will want off our sinking ship.

Forgot we even had a game today. I'm glad about that.

As usual, excellent analysis.

True Grit said:

---

To be a student right now, and not much to celebrate in athletics. It all starts at the top… Linda, Mack, and the BOR. What are our accountability/success metrics for athletics?

---

Participation trophies.

Head coach Scott Drew on if Baylor can turn it around after a 0-3 start to Big 12 play🐻⤵️

“This team has a lot of unique challenges that we probably haven't had since our first year. At the end of the day, every night is a good win opportunity in the Big 12. Everybody signed up… pic.twitter.com/Hhit96feHH

— Baylor Bears on SicEm365 (@SicEm365) January 10, 2026

That's a BS response. This isn't your first year. You failed to properly build a team while flirting with the KY job and now the lack of that attention has finally reared its head. You need to start thinking about a 0-6 start and how to keep the players focused when the season is lost.

I hate to say it but Rob Wright as part of this team would help but let's face it, we wouldn't be that much better.

It's about buying players. Write checks and Baylor will be back on top.

Smashmouth said:

---

I hate to say it but Rob Wright as part of this team would help but let's face it, we wouldn't be that much better.

---

We would be way better. When Scott Drew has a good point guard, our floor is really high. When he doesn't, we're a bubble team (or worse).

We saw this in 2010-11 (AJ Walton), 2015-16 (Lester Medford) and 2017-18 (Manu Lecomte) and we're seeing it again this year. Scott Drew's offense is extremely dependent on a point guard that can break down a defense, and we don't have that this year. Wright would have changed everything because not only is he capable of doing that, but he'd also push Agbim to a spot-up shooter role, where he'd be more comfortable, and he'd draw defensive attention away from and create space on the court for Carr on the offensive end.

This team's lack of a point guard has really been a problem since Big 12 play started. We can't generate shots. Wright would have fixed a lot of that.

100%. I was just thinking of Lecomte and that 2018 NIT team which was the last time we missed the tourney. The PG that year? LeComte, and the rest of the backcourt was very mid as well (Jacob Lindsey and King McClure). Following that disappointing season, we brought in Butler and Mason to man the backcourt, and Davion and Teague were brought in as redshirts. The rest, as they say, is history.

We have now hit rock bottom again in the backcourt, and at this point heading towards an NIT apppearance at best. Just not sure if under the current NIL and transfer portal configuration, CSD has it in him for another rebuild. He looks tired and this is not the game he signed up for.

Crawfoso1973 said:

---

100%. I was just thinking of Lecomte and that 2018 NIT team which was the last time we missed the tourney. The PG that year? LeComte, and the rest of the backcourt was very mid as well (Jacob Lindsey and King McClure). Following that disappointing season, we brought in Butler and Mason to man the backcourt, and Davion and Teague were brought in as redshirts. The rest, as they say, is history.

We have now hit rock bottom again in the backcourt, and at this point heading towards an NIT apppearance at best. Just not sure if under the current NIL and transfer portal configuration, CSD has it in him for another rebuild. He looks tired and this is not the game he signed up for.

---

Unfortunately, it's exactly what he signed up for by allowing our roster to reach the level it has. His roster construction since the 2021-22 season has been abysmal, culminating in a complete overhaul this past offseason.

As much as I like and respect Drew, he did this to himself.

Injuries are part of the game (Bu has had horrendous luck in that category) but Drew doesn't seem prepared at all for potential injuries from a depth standpoint.
The biggest concern I have at this point is whether Drew his ability to hit on who he recruits whether cuz transfer portal or exciting. Unfortunately he's doing a lot more missing than hitting these days and ultimately that's what's starting the downward spiral. That and his roster construction is crap. But I've said that for years. No sense in me beating that dead horse

IowaBear said:

---

Injuries are part of the game (Bu has had horrendous luck in that category) but Drew doesn't seem prepared at all for potential injuries from a depth standpoint.
The biggest concern I have at this point is whether Drew his ability to hit on who he recruits whether cuz transfer portal or exciting. Unfortunately he's doing a lot more missing than hitting these days and ultimately that's what's starting the downward spiral. That and his roster construction is crap. But I've said that for years. No sense in me beating that dead horse

---

It seems either hit or miss with Drew. When he hits, it usually a homerun but to our detriment because they leave too early (Missi, Sochan, Carr).

I thought Powell and Williams were excellent additions as blue-collar role players. But we failed spectacularly with Obi and Rataj expected to carry our team.

Crawfoso1973 said:

---

Yes, a variety of factors have created the roster turnover and demise of our program beginning in the 2021 season.

• recruiting busts: Jordan Turner, Loveday, Dainja, Grimes, Lohner, Miro Little, Roach, Asemota, Celestine. All of these guys were expected to either contribute immediately or develop into gems through player development. None of them panned out.
• expected one-and-done players who have hurt program continuity: Brown, Keyonte, Walter, VJ, Tounde, Omier, RayJ, Obi, Rataj, Skillings, Powell
• "unplanned" one and done guys: Missi, Sochan, Wright, Carr
• devastatingly bad injury luck: Cryer, Love, EJ, Perez, Bodo Bodo, Skillings (?)

Any one of these factors in isolation isn't too bad. But when you combine all of them simultaneously, it's really too much for Drew or any coaching staff to overcome. I would say the "unplanned" losses hurt us the most, most recently the loss of Wright to the portal which has devasted us this season and beyond. Unfortunately we doubled down on the one-and-done strategy bringing in Obi, Powell, Rataj, Tounde, Skillings, and Carr so we are looking at a complete roster overhaul again in the offseason..

---

Next year shouldn't be an overhaul. And if it is, we need to have a serious talk about the present and future of our program.

We should bring back Williams, Perez, Nnaji and Bodo Bodo as potential starting caliber players and the two project freshmen as potential deep rotation guys.

If we lose all those guys and are starting over again, we need to figure out why Scott Drew is no longer capable of keeping anyone in his program and building a nucleus of program guys to add impact transfers to. That is what all of the best teams in our league our doing. If we can't accomplish that, we can expect to remain an also-ran for as long as Drew remains at Baylor.

None of the best teams in our conference -- or around the country, for that matter -- are rebuilding their roster from scratch every single season. If Scott Drew can't find a way off that carrousel, we either need to start considering the possibility that his time in Waco has run its course or just accept the mediocrity that comes with our current roster-building strategy.

Some of the busts you mention I think could've been developed into quality players. At the very least solid off the bench guys to hit a 3 or cause some havoc. NIL and portal makes player development extremely hard because guys will just leave for money and playing time.

It also gets tough for a coach who feels the pressure to win now. You can keep the developmental guy and hope he sticks around to develop or grab the guy out of the portal who looks ready to contribute now.

Kudos to Sampson for what he's built. Houston gets dudes to stay. I'm guessing Fertitta helps out with that but however they convince dudes to stay and develop it's impressive.

As you mentioned above Drew has been a little too good at evaluating talent or it ends up being a seemingly poor fit. A guy like Celestine would've made a solid role player on the right team coming off the bench to spot up for 3s but we needed him rebounding and playing more of a true forward role. Something he just isn't.

There's only so many pieces on the chess board and in this game of chess they cost money and lately we've not been able to properly fill out the chess board. We got a number of highly rated portal guys this year so I don't think it's a money thing most of the time, Wright was, but I think we've struggled with a timing thing. Guys go pro early, our PG leaves late, an ongoing injury bug, etc.

I'm not saying this to give Drew a pass because he's ultimately in charge, but I keep wondering are the newest set of assistants just not as good at scouting and recognizing contributory talent potential as well as some of the prior assistants?

I would have been alarmed if all the people who departed the program last year went to another P5 school (including Big East as the 5th) and became significant contributors or stars. I would have even raised an eyebrow if they transferred down to mid majors and were stars this season. That would have told me perhaps we had some coaching mishaps. But, other than Wright, almost all the transfers are not really playing that much or doing that much overall, so it sounds like even under new conditions they just aren't very good. This steers me toward potential issues with skill assessment when we recruited them.

I know money has a role in this, but at the same time I see dudes on other rosters in backup roles or sometimes starting and who have very good fundamental skills who reportedly aren't being paid that much according to the their fanbases (and, yes, I realize fanbases don't always know how much someone is being paid so there is definitely potential for an error factor there).


*Noted: obviously Josh O is injured so he is unable to show what he can do so far in the B1G.

I am not sure how Drew could lose all of the assistants who are now successful head coaches and the program and coaching not suffer.

I'm sure money had a ton to do with Wright's decisions to keave, but i bet roster construction played just as big or bigger role.
Good players want to be surrounded by other good players. This team would be better with Wright, but they weren't going to be as good as BYU.