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Baylor is the biggest-name on Kentucky’s non-conference home schedule in 2012-13. The Bears have had quite the interesting summer that included a top-5 recruiting class, a basketball player blackmailing former football standout (and 2011 Heisman Trophy winner) Robert Griffin III and adapting to NCAA sanctions for failing to monitor texting limits. My friends over the Big 12 subsite of RushTheCourt.net have [URL=”http://rushthecourt.net/2012/07/25/big-12-summer-update-baylor-bears/”]an extensively detailed preview[/URL] of Kentucky’s guests on December 4th.
Danny Spewak and Jeremy Pfingsten sum up their preview with an overview of Baylor head coach Scott Drew:
[QUOTE][B]State of the Program: [/B]
Pretty easy to see where this is going. Scott Drew offers blue-chip recruits the opportunity to play freely and unrestricted in an NBA-style offense; blue-chip recruits see Drew’s former players making millions in the league and accept. It’s happened over and over again, and no matter what you say about Drew, he sticks to his ways. He’s not Bob Knight, he’s not Coach K, and he’s not running a strict motion offense with staunch man-to-man defensive principles. This isn’t Norman Dale at Hickory. He’s not old-school at all. But judging by his latest recruiting class, it’s once again obvious that some of the best high school prospects like the idea of playing under Drew. They like the fact that he’s loose and that he’ll allow them the chance to showcase their skills to pro scouts in his isolation, mismatch-based offense. Drew isn’t going to change his philosophy any time soon, and high school recruits aren’t going to stop committing to Baylor any time soon, either. There is a risk involved with the way Drew has built his program, of course. Two years ago, one of the most talented teams in the Big 12 crashed and burned and tumbled all the way to the NIT. But that was sandwiched between two Elite Eights in 2010 and 2012, and Drew’s program is still shocking the college basketball world after he took over in the midst of the Dennehy scandal. The main key for Drew is he has a terrific point guard in Jackson this year to lean on. When Drew’s teams have struggled in the past, it’s because he did not have facilitators on the offensive end and his players did not pass all that well. With Jackson — as well as three other capable point guards on the roster — that shouldn’t be an issue this year, just as it wasn’t last year.[/QUOTE]
