USA TODAY International Edition
Baylor continues big year in sports,
Sweet 16 spot for men’s basketball part of banner year for a bunch of Bears
ANAHEIM, CALIF. The e- mail buzzed into selected inboxes late one summer Saturday evening, from a media relations director. Baylor’s athletics director was available to discuss his school’s place in the shifting picture of conference realignment. Right now. And here was his cellphone number.
Ian McCaw chuckles at the memory of the pitch, which was born of desperation. It was not quite four years ago, but it seems a part of the distant past — probably, because it’s hard to fathom just what might have been. And what has happened since, where the school’s overall athletics program has soared since.
“We were living hour to hour,” McCaw said this week. “It was a very unstable period for everyone in college athletics — but particularly for Baylor. It makes you appreciate times like this that much more.”
Times such as today, when Baylor ( 26- 11), the No. 6 seed in the West Region, plays No. 2 seed Wisconsin. At stake for the Bears: advancing to the Elite Eight for the third time in five years. But coach Scott Drew’s team is only one piece of a very, very good year for the Baptist school in Waco, Texas.
This school year, Baylor’s football team has won the Big 12 — its first undisputed conference title in 33 years — and played in the Fiesta Bowl, its first Bowl Championship Series berth. The most successful program on campus is the women’s basketball team, which under Kim Mulkey has two national championships and is playing in its sixth consecutive Sweet 16. No one would be surprised if her team reached the Final Four again. Year of the Bear? “If you want to say it again, we’ll take it,” Baylor football coach Art Briles said.
Two years ago, women’s hoops won the national championship, 40- 0 with national player of the year Brittney Griner. Football had 10 wins, including in the Alamo Bowl, and Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy. Men’s hoops reached the Elite Eight. All 19 sports reached the postseason.
By comparison? “This is another good year,” McCaw said. But 2013- 14 is simply a continuation of the most successful period in the history of the private school on the banks of the Brazos River.
“It’s a different era,” McCaw said. “This is the best it’s ever been.”
Drew’s team might be the most unlikely of the collective success.
The Bears’ non- conference schedule included a win against Kentucky, but when Big 12 play rolled around they lost eight of their first 10 games. In mid- February the talk wasn’t of a deep NCAA tournament run, it was of missing the postseason. But they won 10 of their last 12 to finish the regular season; their performance in victories against Nebraska ( 74- 60) and No. 3 seed Creighton ( 85- 55) were as impressive as any in the NCAA tournament’s first weekend.
Explaining the surge might be as simple as the return of junior guard Kenny Chery from turf toe. “We’re only as good as our players,” Drew said. “When we have a healthy team, it really helped. Everybody picked up their game.”
Whatever the reasons, the Bears are in what has become a familiar place. They’re one of 12 teams to reach the Sweet 16 three times since 2010. With a win against Wisconsin, they’d be in the Elite Eight for the third time in five seasons. Among the programs that cannot make that claim: bluebloods Duke, Kansas and North Carolina.
But the success is just part of an impressive transformation of an athletics department that historically struggled to compete with larger, better- resourced peers in the Southwest and Big 12 conferences.
The budget is now $ 74 million. A new football stadium, with 36,000 season tickets sold, will host its first game Aug. 31. “There’s definitely a lot of good things happening,” Drew said. “We all feed off of each other.”
And if you like omens — given the school’s religious affiliation, this should probably be described instead as a potential sign — there was the announcement Tuesday that the College Football Playoff’s new championship trophy will be sponsored by Dr Pepper — which was created in Waco.
“We’re very fortunate the Big 12 remained together and has really given us a platform,” McCaw said. “We really have momentum. The future is bullish for the Bears.”