Scott Drew believes Baylor's NCAA Tournament resumé 'speaks for itself'

Baylor, having won ten and lost ten in conference play while losing four of six going into the postseason, is currently projecting closer to the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. Still, Scott Drew says the Bears have done enough to be in even before the Big 12 Tournament.

Drew addressed the tournament resumé for Baylor at a press conference on Monday. That said, his focus is on the conference tournament this week in Kansas City first as the Bears are the No. 7 seed and are waiting for their opponent for tomorrow in the second round.

“I think, uh, first and foremost, it’s a great opportunity playing in the Big 12 Tournament. We didn’t, uh, achieve our goal, as of every team in the Big 12, to win the regular season so now you get a mulligan and you get a chance to, to win a Big 12 Conference Tournament Championship,” Drew said. “So, um, that in itself is enough motivation and excitement.”

Still, even without advancing or winning it all in the league this week, Drew thinks Baylor has done enough to be in the NCAA Tournament. That’s with the Bears at 18-13 (10-10) overall with a 5-11 record in Quad 1 as they’re in 31st per the latest in the NET. Among that record is wins over teams in the field like Arkansas, St. John’s, and Kansas with only two lesser losses coming from league play in the Big 12.

Because of that, Drew doesn’t feel they need to say any more about why they should be in. They can still certainly do more this week, though, to better position themselves in the bracket.

“As far as, um, the NCAA Tournament? I would say that our resumé speaks for itself,” said Drew. “We have good non-conference wins. We went .500 in one of the top conferences in the country. So do I feel like that’s good enough? Yes, but we always want to leave no doubt and we want to improve our seed if possible. So, a lot to play for.”

Baylor is still in projections as in with On3’s James Fletcher has them as a No. 9 seed while ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently has them as a No. 10 seed among the Last Four Byes. Even so, a win on Wednesday and at least making it into the quarterfinals, if not further, in the Big 12 would give them what they need heading into Selection Sunday.

“We’re playing good basketball and we need to keep that momentum, keep improving, and keep putting, uh, and stack good halves, good games together so we have momentum in the postseason,” Drew said.