Baylor Career
On August 22, 2003, Drew took the head coaching position of the men's team at Baylor University after the resignation of Dave Bliss due to scandal. Drew took over the team in August, unusually late for a coaching change, and most of Baylor's top players from the previous year had chosen to transfer.
Drew took over a program left in a shambles as a result of the scandal. Besides losing most of its top players, the program was put on probation until 2010, and had paid scholarships and paid recruiting visits reduced until 2007. Post season play was also cancelled for the 2003–04 season, and only conference games were permitted for the 2005–06 season. With these handicaps, Drew led the Bears to an 8–21 record in the 2003–04 season, 9–19 in the 2004–05 season, and 4–13 in the conference-only 2005–06 season.
In the 2007–08 season, Drew turned around his Bears to finish with a 21–9 regular season record and 9–7 Big 12 record, and rank 4th in the Big 12. The 21 wins and 9 conference wins were Baylor's best since joining the Big 12 in 1996. It was enough to make the NCAA Tournament for only the fifth time in school history and the first time since 1988. At the end of the regular season, when Drew made an appearance on the sports show PTI, host Tony Kornheiser suggested on the air that Drew be voted "unanimous coach of the year". After the season, Drew signed a 10 year contract extension to stay the head coach of the Bears.
Prior to the 2008–09 season, a Rivals.com writer called Drew the Big 12 "coach on the rise", due to Drew's success in recruiting talent to Baylor. The Big 12 coaches picked Drew's squad to finish 4th in the conference.
In 2010, after finishing tied for second in the Big 12 with a squad picked to finish tenth in the preseason poll, Scott Drew was elected the Austin American Statesman's Coach of the Year award. That year he went on to beat the Longhorns 3 straight times in 2010. He went on in the same year to enjoy a NCAA sweet 16 birth making he and his father Homer Drew one of the few father and son coaches to accomplish such feat. Then he went one step further and made an Elite 8 appearance eventually losing to the national championship winning Duke Blue Devils.
In 2011, Drew led Baylor to a 18–13 overall record and an seventh-place finish in the Big 12. In the first round of the Big 12 Conference Tournament, Baylor lost to the 14–17 Oklahoma Sooners 84–67. Hours before the game, Baylor was informed that star player Perry Jones III would not be allowed to play, which was later admitted to be a mistake after national outrage against the NCAA.
Baylor was expected to be even more improved in 2011–12. The Bears started the season 17–0 and rising to third in the AP Poll and the coaches' poll—the highest weekly rankings in school history. However Baylor would finish on a 13-8 run in their last 21 games and finishing in a tie for third in the Big XII. In the NCAA Tournament, an Elite Eight loss to Kentucky marked the second time in three seasons that the Bears' season ended at the hands of the eventual national champions.20-13 Season, Baylor failed to get an invitational back to the NCAA Tournament, but accepted a bid to the NIT. They would later go on to win it.
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