GCU coach Bryce Drew proud his brother Scott (pictured) won NCAA title,
Grand Canyon basketball coach Bryce Drew’s NCAA Tournament experience this year started with joy, turned into shock, then ended with exuberance.
He caught a flight to Indianapolis to see his brother, Scott Drew, coach Baylor to the national championship in a dominating beginning-to-end fashion over Gonzaga for the Waco, Texas school’s first men’s basketball title.
Bryce Drew was in the crowd with his father Homer, who coached him at Valparaiso in Indiana. Both Scott and Bryce had head coaching stints following their father at Valparaiso.
“Just so proud of him,” Bryce said of his brother, who rebuilt the Baylor program beginning in 2003, when the it was in dire straits. “It’s been a dream. When we were young, watching all the NCAA Tournament games, and then to win a national championship, it’s still surreal.
“They were fabulous.”
Drew also was happy to see the “One Shining Moment” montage played by CBS Sports after the game include senior forward Oscar Frayer, who died in a car accident three days following GCU’s first-round tournament loss to Iowa.
He is seen blocking a shot, followed by a close up of him with the lyrics, “Feel the wind in your face,” sung by Luther Vandross.
Early in the montage, there are fans shots, including one of the GCU students Havocs, who made it to the Antelopes’ first-ever NCAA Tournament game.
And near the end, there was Scott Drew hugging Baylor player Mark Vital in celebration after the the final seconds ticked off.
“To get Oscar, I wondered if they would put him in and where they would put him,” Bryce Drew said. “I thought they did a tremendous job with it. It was extra special.
“Seeing Oscar in there and my brother in there, I’ve probably watched that five times.”