Everything Baylor Coach Scott Drew Said Ahead of TCU Showdown

Baylor has lost five of its last six games and the Bears are reeling. But it's never too late to get back on track with plenty of Big 12 games to be played, but Baylor has to right the ship immediately. Scott Drew's team has a chance to do so on Saturday against rival, TCU.

The Bears fell to TCU earlier this season, and will look to take the win this time around. Baylor has a favorable schedule coming up, but as Scott Drew said on Friday, the goal is to go 1-0.

With the Horned Frogs up on the docket, here is everything coach Drew said on Friday.

Areas Baylor must improve

I think what we tried to do the last couple days is simplify some things that we're doing defensively, and try to get better at those. And at the end of the day, if we get stops, then you can get in transition, and everybody's offense is always better in transition. So with that, I think I tried to do a few things well instead of a lot of things average. And that means different ball screen coverages, actions off the ball, number of switches, etc.

On determining if the game was going to be played

You know, safety is always first and foremost. But we are blessed having TCU close by, so they'll be able to get in no problem. And we've had the ice storm. We played Kentucky up in Dallas, and there's been other times where we've been on the road and it's bad conditions. The great thing about the Big 12, they're never going to put anyone in harm's way. So if they tell us we need to do something different, everybody follows suit.

Message to fans about coming to the game

Safety first, 100 percent. The good thing is, I mean, a lot of our fans live in close proximity, and they'll know right away what the weather's like. The students, a lot of them walk over, and it'll be 72 and sunny and in the gym. So if they want to come up, and that's one of the reasons I always think sometimes you go to the North and you get at Iowa State and, like, why those arenas are so packed when it's negative four. Maybe it's the only place with heat in the city, I don't know. But my point is it's going to be warm in here, I know that.

What they learned from the close loss to TCU earlier in the year

Well, the good thing about playing teams twice is after the first one, you get a chance to make adjustments, and things that you wish you would have tried, now you can. Doesn't guarantee they're going to work, but at least it gives you an opportunity to make some changes. And then, obviously, things that did work probably will be a little tougher to work from the standpoint they make adjustments to.

But I think it's probably the closest thing you come to, like, to the NBA when you've got playoffs, and you can now, game one, this is what you do, now what are your adjustments? And the next one, what are your adjustments? And by the time, in the Big 12, if you play someone a third time, really, everybody's about out of adjustments, so.

Motivation to end the losing streak at home

I think any time you lose, you don't like it. What happens is, when you lose, sometimes you lose confidence, and you lose morale. And as a staff, we try to do the best we can, and as a team, we try to do the best we can. And that's what's great about sports, so it prepares you for life.

I mean, there's going to be, you're either in a storm, you're going to go in a storm, you're coming out of a storm, and it's, the lessons you learn in sports, being on a team through adversity, just like a company going through a bad quarter, I mean, it teaches you how to bounce back and perspective, and we're all blessed to have an opportunity to do something we love doing.

At the same time, we want to represent Baylor, we want to represent our fans, and we want to give them something positive to cheer about. I mean, nobody wants to come and watch a team that doesn't win, so we get that, and we'll do everything we can to make that win happen. Unfortunately, there's another team trying to do the same.

On how TCU's crowd 'welcomed' James Nnaji

Well, I think James, after that game, hasn't had any kind of negative presence in our other away games, and I think there's been some great articles just talking about him as a person and what he's about, and I got the pleasure to ask him after the first day of class, what's it like being in college and being a college student? So, I mean, that's kind of cool, too.

On focusing on one game at a time

Well, I think that's, again, I think in sports you're not successful if you're not doing one play at a time, and if you're not focused on that moment, I mean, we call it going 1-0. I mean, are you going 1-0 on the offensive end, are you going 1-0 on the defensive end? It's when you get too broad, then you don't take care of what you need in between, and you got no chance for the 5-5 or whatever.

So, I mean, right now everybody's just focused on what can we do to win the possession and hopefully put the best effort we can and get the best results we can and then keep improving from there. I know, I think our coaching staff has a better grasp of some players' strengths and weaknesses and try to put guys in positions to be more successful and take them out of positions that maybe they're not, and, again, that's the beauty of coaching guys two, three, four years. You know their strengths.

You can work on their weaknesses, but you know what and whenever you have a new team or a guy's transfer, it just takes time to figure some of that out. That's why I think most teams that have gotten off to a hot start, they got a good base, they got a good foundation, and that's why obviously everybody prefers to have more veterans of their better players staying around. So with us, I mean, hopefully we'll be a better team tomorrow than we were last week, and hopefully the next game will be better than we are tomorrow, and that's all we can do is just improve what we have.

Sometimes when you lose, the teams, the negativity and the morale and that, if it becomes high or becomes depressed, then you got no chance. I mean, no one's feeling sorry for you. I mean, we're all blessed to be able to do what we do, and it's our job to win and find a way to win.