Baylor Basketball: 2019-20 season review of the Bears

Overall view of the season

This team… The coach… The ceiling…
I could go on for days…

So, let’s go ahead and start. How did this team do compared to expectations? Very well, extremely well, excellent. In fact, I’m honestly not sure how it could’ve gone much better.

A team that was picked to finish third in their own conference, finished third (KenPom) in the country. From starting outside the AP Top 15 to spending more time at the top of the rankings than any other school the entire season! I’m not sure how it could’ve gotten any better for a team that ended all but locking-up a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

A team full of depth, experience and togetherness. The Bears started showing signs before the season even started. While on their foreign tour in Italy they swept every professional team they came across, even while playing without presumed preseason All-Big 12 star Tristan Clark. Little did we know at the time, Clark would play limited minutes all season long after coming off of a terrible knee injury.

Baylor then started the season 1-1. They fell all the way to #23 in the AP Poll and sat there for two weeks. Then, they went on the longest winning streak in Big 12 history and sat at #1 in the rankings for 5 straight weeks! The last team to do that is regarded as one of the best college basketball teams of all time. (Granted, the 2015 Kentucky Wildcats never even moved off of the top spot. Going 38-1 only losing in the Final Four, but that’s a story for another day.) Baylor would then finish the regular season with an astonishing 26-4 record.

After 17 years Scott Drew has finally proven himself to be one of the best and most consistent coaches in college basketball. He finished the season as a Naismith Men’s Coach of the Year Award finalist and won his first Big 12 Coach of the Year Award. By the end of the regular season, he had already placed himself and his team in the best position to make a Final Four in the program’s history.

Obviously, the player and coaching accolades could continue on, as the record and credentials show. So I will wrap up with this, I am truly honored as a fan to have followed the season so closely. It was a joy to watch and be a part of from home and in-person for a day in Gainesville. It’s a season I will always remember and while the past has proved to us over and over that no one is safe come March. I do still truly believe this Baylor squad was one of the eight or so teams that had real claims as National Title contenders come that Final Four weekend in Atlanta, that will never be. In a season I know we all wish hadn’t been cut short.

I can’t wait for next year!
Speaking of…