Baylor Coach Scott Drew Applauds Isaac Williams After Another Strong Outing

It's getting clearer who Baylor's No. 3 is on this team.

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After a heartbreaking loss to Arizona, Baylor is back to .500 on the season. The Bears looked to come to life against the 'Cats, but Arizona caught fire from long distance — along with being the more talented team — took over at the end and the Bears came up short once again.

There are no moral victories to losing a game. But if there were any, it's that guard Isaac Williams continues to emerge as a capable No. 3 on this team. We've known that Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou have been the offense this season. Both players are averaging 17 points a game.

After them, it's been inconsistent. Michael Rataj was supposed to be it, but he's disappointed since coming to Waco. Obi Agbim has been streaky, but Williams' stock is rising.

The 6'1" sophomore is now averaging over 10 points and in the last five games, he's been over double-digit scoring. He's dishing out the ball at an elite level, not afraid to get a rebound, and it's becoming clearer that Baylor needs to do whatever it can to retain him.

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"Well, Isaac is so effective getting to the paint, and I think he's really improved his ability to get to the paint and spray it around, get other guys' shots," Drew said of Williams. "He's always been really good at getting to the rim and finishing, but adding the game slowed down for him, and it's allowed him to, I mean, five assists, zero turnovers.

"You take that every day, twice on Sunday, 5-for-6, 1-for-1 from three. And then defensively, he does a really good job. He really competes, really coachable, extremely hardworking. Those are the guys that have really done well in our program, is the guys that come in and they listen and work extremely hard. So happy for him."

Drew still has the mindset of controlling your own identity

There might be hope for next season, depending on Baylor's roster construction, but sitting at .500 with three games left — the NCAA Tournament push appears to be ending. Of course, Baylor could make a run in the Big 12 Tournament and earn an automatic bid, but the Bears would have to win some big games against monster teams.

As difficult of a challenge as it may be, coach Drew won't stop believing that Baylor controls its own destiny.

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"I know it took us about half the year to figure out just what we had and start to put guys in better positions to be successful,and I think the toughest thing is in the non-conference, you play guarantee games," said Drew. "Which you really can't see what you have, and then you play some non-conference games, and out of the six or seven, how many of them are one or two possession games?

"Then you get into Big 12 play, and all of a sudden, everything is a lot harder, and if you're blessed to win, you're going to be in a lot of close games. I feel like our staff finally has our guys knowing what we can expect and what positions we can put them in to be successful. I think they're starting to trust each other, starting to play more because they're not thinking about what they're doing.

"We've tried to simplify some stuff and make it easier for them, but they were fun to coach [Tuesday]. They competed. They listened. They tried hard, but we're Baylor, and we want to win these games. We're used to winning these games. At one point, we were best record against top 25 teams in the country, and got to get over to home, so job not finished.

"No moral victories. Appreciate the crowd. We're going to keep grinding, getting better. We control our own destiny and proud of the guys' improvement this year so far."