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Congratulations to Coach Scott Drew and Baylor University for winning their first ever NCAA National Championship. Legacy. It all began in 1988, when Scott’s father Homer Drew was named head coach of Valparaiso University. He espoused a “Building a Tradition” philosophy at Valpo – as the team is popularly known. After a slow start, averaging only 6 conference game wins in his first six seasons, he built Valpo into a formidable mid-major program. His teams won 8 regular season championships, 8 conference tournaments championship, ten 20-win seasons, and took Valpo to the NCAA Tournament seven times.
In 2019, Coach Homer Drew entered the Basketball Hall of Fame, with 640 career wins, ranking him #6 is most wins among active Division I coaches. Subsequently in 2010, Valparaiso’s basketball arena was named Homer Drew Court in honor of the coach that made Valpo a famous basketball team.
Homer and Bryce embrace after his match-winning 3-pointer
The highlight of the Valpo story was in the 1997-1998 season, when Valpo upset two teams in March Madness to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Homer’s younger son Bryce had led Valparaiso High School to win the state championship in 1994, earning him the honors of being selected Mr. Indiana for high school basketball in the state of Indiana, as well as the Gatorade Player of the Year for 1994. After multiple scholarship offers from high major Division I powerhouses like Syracuse, Standford, and others, Bryce decided to stay at home and play for his dad.
During his four years playing for his father at Valpo, Bryce would become the all-time leader in points (2,142), three point shots made (364), and assists (626). Valpo won all four regular season championships, conference tournaments, and took Valpo to March Madness three of the four years. Bryce was selected conference tournament MVP three of the four years he played and was selected as the overall Mid-Continent Conference MVP two years.
This incredible story became a famous story worldwide in March Madness 1998, when Valpo went to the March Madness tournament as a 13 th seed. With 2.5 seconds left, down by two points against 4 th seed Ole Miss, Bryce Drew hit “the shot” sending Valparaiso and the Drew family into the history books. Valparaiso went on further in their second game of the first round, upsetting Florida State, thus advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. The Cinderella story was on every news story in America for a week. Though they lost to 8 th seed Rhode Island in the Sweet Sixteen, “the shot” as it is still known twenty years later, won the Espy Award for the best moment in all sports in 1998.
During this magical season of March Madness at its best, Bryce’s older brother Scott Drew was in his sixth year as an assistance coach to their father – enjoying the story, watching, learning, and preparing. He was one of the first to dive on the floor on top of Bryce, to be piled upon by the rest of his team when he nailed the shot heard around the basketball world. Bryce went on to become the first ever first round NBA draft pick for Valparaiso, drafted by the Houston Rockets. He had a great career, playing seven years professionally. While Bryce was playing professionally in 2002, Homer retired as head coach of Valparaiso. His son Scott Drew was named Head Coach of Valparaiso in 2002. Scott won the regular season in his first season at Valpo. In 2003, Scott received a call from Baylor University to become their next head basketball coach. He promised a national championship in his first press conference.
Baylor basketball was at the absolute bottom of college basketball. The program has suffered one of the worst scandals in college basketball when one player killed another over a drug-related incident. Baylor’s former coach was fired and Baylor’s players transferred to other universities. Baylor University responded immediately and responsibly. In addition to firing the coach and launching an investigation, it punished its own basketball program by implementing various sanctions.
It was in part because of Baylor University’s self-imposed sanctions, that the NCAA, which was on the verge of banning Baylor basketball for all time, gave Baylor another chance. Baylor was penalized, being put on probation until 2010, with all basketball scholarships reduced for four seasons. In spite of only retaining six scholarship players in his first season, Coach Drew managed to win eight games in the Big 12 with walk-ons.
Homer returned as Valparaiso’s head coach when his older son Scott accepted by Baylor job in 2003. Now it would be his younger son Bryce, who would follow the steps of his older brother serving as an assistant to his father at Valpo in 2005. In 2011, Homer would retire as head coach and his younger son was named as head coach at Valparaiso. Bryce would have also have a fabulous career at Valpo, winning their conference four of the five seasons he served as head coach, being named Coach of the Year for the Horizon League three of his five years at Valpo. He took Valpo to post season tournaments in every season as a head coach.
As Scott continued to build Baylor from a team at the bottom of the powerful Big 12 Conference to a consistently formidable contender, Bryce was offered in 2016 the head coaching job at Vanderbilt University, of the legendary Southeastern Conference (SEC). At Vanderbilt, Bryce would repeat what he did at Valparaiso in becoming the first coach in the history of Vanderbilt to take his team to March Madness in his first season.
Bryce would be joined by his brother-in-law Casey Shaw has assistant coach. Casey played for the Philadelphia 76ers, then enjoyed a spectacular professional career at various clubs in Europe, playing a total of 13 professional seasons. Dana Drew Shaw was an All-American and all-time leading scorer at the University of Toledo, later advancing and then declining an opportunity for the WNBA to stand by Casey in his professional career.
Following the injury of future NBA star Darius Garland injury, Vanderbilt lost every conference game, leading to the firing of Bryce Drew in 2019. Like a true warrior, accustomed to adversity, Bryce kept his head high. Sitting out a year from coaching to spend more time with his family and serving as an NCAA commentator, he received his call to return to coaching when the NCAA Division I mid-major program Grand Canyon University named Bryce as head coach in 2020. In his first season coaching, Bryce led Grand Canyon University to their first ever regular season co-championship, conference tournament championship, thus taking GCU to their first ever appearance in March Madness this past month.
The pinnacle of this wonderful family story, which gives hope to us all and teaches us to never give up, happened in the championship game as Baylor University defeated Gonzaga University for the NCAA National Championship – the first ever in the history of Baylor University. It was a tribute to Scott and one of the best teams college basketball has ever seen. Scott Drew’s work represents the culmination of 18 years of hard work, where he inherited a broken basketball program and transformed it into a consistent top contender in NCAA basketball.
But it was even more a tribute to the legacy of Homer Drew, one of my heroes, who began in 1988 to build a tradition. Perhaps unknown to him at the time, his legacy and tradition extends well beyond his accomplishments as a Hall of Fame basketball coach. His legacy has established a tradition for his family and served as a source of inspiration for all of us.
This is an incredible story of the Drew family, and one of hope for a world suffering from the uncertainties of a global pandemic. With both Homer and his wife Janet having recovered from cancer, Bryce’s dismissal at Vanderbilt, it is a story of perseverance to give courage and hope to a nation – to never give up and to keep fighting the good fight.
It is a good year for basketball. For this story transcends basketball. It is about something higher – the human spirit and the lesson of not giving up in the face of failure and the setbacks that life brings – individually and for all of us. Drew family legacy has provided an example for us all of what is most important in life. Thank you God and thank you Coach Drew for building a great tradition and for being a great mentor, not only to your players, but to all of us who love the game of basketball!
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