Grand Canyon Basketball: The real impact of Bryce Drew on the Antelopes

What impact will new head coach Bryce Drew have for Grand Canyon Basketball?

All things considered, the Grand Canyon basketball program is certainly one that seems to have a lot of potential moving forward. The Antelopes won a trio of NAIA national championships over thirty years ago and have only been in Division 1 since 2013.

Former Phoenix Suns star Dan Majerle coached the Antelopes for their first seven seasons in the WAC, but was dismissed after a subpar final season at the helm. Grand Canyon has an excited fanbase and reside in a pretty weak conference, but needed a strong hire to push this team forward.

The Antelopes filled that hole with the hiring of Bryce Drew this past March. Drew rose to fame as a player by sinking the infamous shot over Ole Miss in the 1998 NCAA Tournament, leading Valparaiso to their only Sweet Sixteen. He later had great success as Valparaiso’s head coach, making a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and winning four Horizon League regular season titles. However, he struggled mightily in three years at Vanderbilt, leading to his firing in 2019.

With Valparaiso, he resided over one of the program’s most prestigious stretches of play, recruiting Alec Peters, the program’s leading scorer and a former Suns player himself. Drew, a former NBA player as well, was very successful recruiting talent to Vanderbilt, his team just suffered greatly from the injury to Darius Garland and the lack of development from other key players. There’s no question that Drew can recruit; expect him to bring some talent down to Phoenix in the coming years.

It’s easy to see Vanderbilt’s winless SEC season in 2019 and be disappointed with Drew’s hire, but you have to look at the big picture. Even if Drew was the cause for that failure, he’s back in a situation where he’s more comfortable. Drew was a rising star in the coaching ranks during his five years leading Valparaiso. It’s true that he was likely comfortable at his alma mater, where he had been an assistant under father Homer for six seasons, but it’s more than just that.

Drew inherited a Valparaiso team that had only joined the Horizon League a few years earlier and he turned them into the conference’s best program. His 124 wins in five seasons is an outstanding number that any mid-major fan would drool over. He won the program’s first four Horizon League conference titles and is a major reason why the Crusaders are now members of the MVC. Simply put, Drew knows how to win at the mid-major level.

Drew’s not inheriting an empty cupboard and nobody is about to forget what Majerle meant for this program. He led the Antelopes to five postseason bids in his seven seasons, though the team could never surpass New Mexico State to win a WAC title. He put a great framework in place, but Drew could be the coach to push things over the top. He’s shown his ability to recruit and develop talent and the challenge of winning a WAC title with the Antelopes is one that he will relish.

New Mexico State has dominated this conference the past decade, but perhaps change is on the horizon. There’s no doubt that Grand Canyon fans are sick of coming close, losing each of the last two WAC title games to the Aggies. Drew will bring talent and put them in a position to succeed in this league and perhaps after collegiate ball as well.

There’s no guarantee that he’ll outshine Majerle, but when you consider what he did for his alma mater, then it’s hard to deny that this is a fantastic hire.