Scott Drew reveals what he looks for when making coaching staff changes

Following a dramatic few days in Waco, Scott Drew ultimately decided to remain at Baylor. However, several of his assistant coaches did leave, forcing Drew to make some pretty big changes across the staff.

Since Baylor’s rise to national champion, staff changes have become pretty regular for Drew, who had to replace his top assistant Jerome Tang, the current Kansas State coach, a couple years back and now had to make an overhaul on the fly this offseason.

This spring alone, Alvin Brooks left for Kentucky, Luke Simons linked up with Jake Diebler at Ohio State, and Bill Peterson stepped down shortly after the season ended. That left at least three changes for Drew, who hired Bill Armstrong, Steve Henson and Melvin Hunt as assistants and also promoted Ty Beard to Director of Basketball Operations.

At a recent press conference recapping the program’s offseason moves, Scott Drew was asked about his approach to hiring new staff members and declared that fit is the most important factor.

“I think the first thing is: who fits our culture and who staff-wise complements one another?” said Drew, making analogy. “When you put together a team, you can’t have all bigs, you can’t have all guards, you got to have a nice blend and combination. So really, guys that complement each other, fill in areas that are have been vacated or left.”

He doesn’t just want to try and replace what was lost, though, and knows it’s important to blend in fresh voices.

“But at the same time, each individual is going to have their own strengths. So it’s kind of, like, again, we won’t run the same offense every year, because you’re not bringing in the same personnel every year. So we’ll adjust what we do staff-wise.”

Drew pointed to Beard’s promotion in specific as someone in a new role that still has been around the Baylor culture for years.

“It’s great because, for instance Ty Beard has been doing video forever and now he’s director of ops and he’s really excited about that new challenge and new role. Yet, he’s still somebody that’s the ultimate culture guy and a good guy for staff and programs.”

There’s nothing wrong with some change, but with so many hires, Drew just wants to be sure he’s hiring the right guys for the program he’s built.

“So like, you want some newness, you want people to be excited about maybe something different within the program, but at the same time, making sure, A through Z, everything’s covered.”