Scott Drew Spurns Kentucky Offer, To Remain With Baylor
Scott Drew will remain the head coach of the Baylor men’s basketball team after a flirtation with the head coaching job at Kentucky.
Thus ended a hectic 24 hours during which Drew dined at a Waco Mexican restaurant, Mi Casita, with a Baylor supporter while his family flew to Lexington on a private jet owned by a major Kentucky booster and Baylor basketball supporter and “Fixer-Upper” star Chip Gaines went toe-to-toe with Kentucky fans on social media.
In the end, Drew opted to stay at the program that he built basically from scratch after he was hired in 2003.
Drew has coached at Baylor for more than 20 seasons has won 446 games with the Bears and led them to the 2021 national championship, the first in the program’s history. He and the Bears have also won or shared two regular season Big 12 titles (2021 and 2022).
Last season the Bears went 24-11, finished in a tie for third in the Big 12 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In recent years Drew has become an elite recruiter and has managed to sign five-star players, something Baylor could not have dreamed of 20 years ago.
Several of those players are already in the NBA, with center Yves Missi opting for the NBA Draft on Wednesday.
Drew’s decision also means that the rumored potential candidates to replace him, including Texas Tech’s Grant McCasland and Kansas State’s Jerome Tang, will remain in place.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
