With tragedy past it, Baylor looks to shine among Big 12 elite

Nov 14, 2008 - 4:03 AM By Alan Eskew PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

To fully appreciate the miraculous job Scott Drew has done in his first five seasons as the Baylor basketball coach, one must turn back the calendar to the day he was hired on August 22, 2003.

To say Baylor's basketball program was in complete disarray when Drew took over would be an understatement.

It was more than a scandal. It was tragic, as Carlos Dotson was sentenced to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering teammate Patrick Dennehy.

There were illegal payments to players by then-coach Dave Bliss and his staff, and NCAA and self-imposed school sanctions, including the loss of scholarships and limiting recruiting visits.

The NCAA allowed Baylor basketball players to transfer without sitting out a year in 2003, and its three top players - Lawrence Roberts, Mississippi State; John Lucas III, Oklahoma State; and Kenny Taylor, Texas - left immediately. Also, Baylor was prohibited from playing any non-conference games during the 2005-06 season.

The governing body of college basketball also imposed a 10-year "show-cause" order on Bliss for "despicable behavior" and "unethical conduct."

This is the mess Drew inherited in 2003.

Five seasons later, Baylor rose from the ashes, going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988. The Bears went 21-11, marking only the fourth time in school history they had won 20-plus games.

But it was not an easy task, as Baylor went 4-28 in Big 12 play in Drew's first two years as he was forced to use walk-ons.

"Our staff will joke about our first couple of days at Baylor when our first recruiting trips were around campus trying to find anyone over 6-5 who could play on our team," Drew said. "Now we have a lot of talented players, a lot of excitement.

"I think most people around campus know who the basketball players are now, where before they were students we were just grabbing out to be part of the team. As we know, the jockey never carries the horse across the line."

Three of the most talented players for Baylor are seniors Curtis Jerrells, a first team All-Big 12 selection last season when he averaged 15.3 points and 3.8 assists; Henry Dugat, who scored 12.2 points; and 6-9 Kevin Rogers, who has started 62 consecutive games and has 16 double-doubles.

"A lot of people don't believe me, but initially I didn't really know much about what had happened in 2003," Jerrells said. "I learned it about after I had committed, but I didn't know we were going to have to miss the whole preseason my first year. I made a commitment. We all hung in there and look at what we're doing now."

Rogers said "it definitely took a lot" of faith to come to Baylor to turn around a beleaguered program.

"It was definitely a challenge and took a lot of patience for us to get where we are now," Rogers said. "That was the plan of the three guys - myself, Henry and Curtis. That was the thing that appealed to us the most, being able to put our own stamp on a program and make some history and have our name embedded in those history books.

"We knew it would take time, but the coaching staff and the quality of the guys we brought in, it turned things around pretty fast."

Expectations are high for the Bears this season. In the conference's preseason poll, they received two first-place votes and ended in a tie with defending national champion Kansas to finish third.

Baylor returns 86.7 percent of its scoring and 87 percent of its rebounding. Guard Aaron Bruce is the only starter not back.

"I think it is a great accomplishment to be picked as high as we were, but it is on us to come out and meet those expectations," Rogers said. "If we don't, then people will consider we're back to the Baylor of old. And they'll consider last year just a fluke.

"We definitely have to come out and play our best basketball. We know it is going to start on the defensive end, where we lacked last year. The hard work we're putting in, I think it will finally get us over that hump."

The Bears are deep at guard with four good ones. After Jerrells and Dugat, they have LaceDarius Dunn, who averaged 13.6 points as a freshman off the bench last season, and junior Tweety Carter, who scored 12.4 points in the final eight games after replacing Bruce in the starting lineup.

Defense and lack of a productive scoring threat inside are the Bears' major weaknesses. While Baylor led the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 81.3 points last season, it ranked last in the conference in scoring defense, giving up 74.9 points a game.

"I don' think we took defense very seriously (last season)," Jerrells said. "We felt like we could outscore everybody, but that really wasn't the case. We found that out against Purdue, who was scoring and we weren't. We couldn't stop them and got blown out."

Purdue beat Baylor, 90-79, in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Bears desire a much deeper run this March.

"I think the day after the tournament we realized that last year was last year," Rogers said. "We can't harp on that because that's in the past. We're definitely hungry. Getting there is great, but we got bounced out in the first round. That's not what you want to do. You don't want to get there and not accomplish anything. We felt like we didn't accomplish anything."

If Baylor makes incremental advances on defenses, it could produce another 20-win season and back-to-back trips to the NCAAs for the first time in school history.

"I know the way we finished last season we were very disappointed in our defense," Drew said. "We have to get better with that. Our athleticism and our front line will help with that. We all know defense wins and loses games, so we have to improve there."

Centers Josh Lomers, 7-0, and Mamadou Diene, 7-1, averaged 3.7 and 3.4 points, respectively, last season, so most of the scoring will come from outside. Diene, who is a senior from Senegal, is a defensive presence, averaging 1.64 blocks a game, which ranked third in the Big 12.

Two freshmen, 6-10 Anthony Jones and 6-7 Quincy Acy, could provide immediate help for the front line.

While Baylor accomplished a lot of firsts last season, two other firsts must be achieved if it is to move to the top of the Big 12. Baylor has lost 28 straight games to Oklahoma, which is the conference favorite. Texas, which is predicted to finish second, has won 22 straight over Baylor.

"That's why me, Curtis and Henry came here, we wanted to turn the program around because it was kind of on a down note," Dugat said. "We wanted to come in and pick it up. I think we're doing pretty good now, but I don't think our job is done here yet. We want to pick it up and get it better. You never want to go back from what we did last year. We want to build off what we did last year and go further than we did."