Outlook: Rewind to January 12th, 2019, and things were looking extremely bleak in Waco. The Bears had just come up short in a spirited comeback attempt against Kansas, a game in which they trailed by 18 with just 3 minutes remaining. The Bears had already lost at home to SWAC titan Texas Southern and an injury-ravaged Stephen F. Austin squad, survived a scare from Prairie View A&M at home, and had just lost their best big man, Tristan Clark, to a season-ending injury. Avoiding the Big 12’s basement seemed the most pressing goal from an outsider’s view (again, they came dangerously close to losing at home to the SWAC twice in a season), and the college basketball masses were asking one of their favorite questions: is Scott Drew a good coach?!

Drew, however, wasn’t about to wave any white flags on the season. He adapted to the roster that remained, switching gears to a much smaller lineup: he shifted burly forwards Mario Kegler and Mark Vital down a spot to the 4/5 rather than 3/4, inserted freshman guard Jared Butler into the starting lineup, and suddenly the Bears caught fire. They won six straight and 10 of 13, including marquee wins against Texas Tech, at Oklahoma, and at Iowa St., and suddenly Baylor seemed all but a lock for the tournament.

Drew’s embrace of small-ball approach and handing the keys to his guards was a massive departure from the past, lending further credence to the fact that Drew is indeed a good coach. Faced with a smaller, more skilled lineup, he made sweeping changes to his offense, putting the ball in his guards’ hands and giving them opportunities to create via isolation and pick-and-roll. After years of feeding post men like Jo Lual-Acuil, Jonathan Motley, and Rico Gathers, Baylor nearly banished the post up from its offense altogether: