The Baylor Bears' rise is the greatest rebuilding story in modern college basketball. In 2003, the program was rocked by scandal — the murder of player Patrick Dennehy and the crimes and cover-up that ended the Dave Bliss era left Baylor in ruins, facing sanctions and shame. What happened next is one of the sport's true miracles.
Scott Drew arrived in 2003 and did the impossible: he rebuilt Baylor from the ashes into a national champion. The 2021 Bears — Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell, MaCio Teague — were a defensive juggernaut that bulldozed through the NCAA tournament and dismantled previously unbeaten Gonzaga 86-70 in the title game. From scandal to the sport's summit in 18 years.
The climb included Elite Eight trips in 2010 and 2012, Big 12 contention, and a pipeline of pros — from Ekpe Udoh to Taurean Prince to Davion Mitchell. Drew's relentless positivity and recruiting turned Waco into a destination, and the Bears became a fixture in the top ten.
Foster Pavilion, the program's gleaming new home on the Brazos River, replaced the Ferrell Center and gave the champions a palace worthy of the program Drew built. The student section's energy and the building's intimacy make it one of the Big 12's toughest trips.
The 2021 championship team's legacy is secure: the best defensive team of its era, the group that ended Gonzaga's perfect season, and the ultimate proof that a program can come back from anything. The banner in Foster Pavilion tells the whole story in one image.
What defines Baylor is the resurrection: from the darkness of 2003 to the 2021 national title, no program has traveled farther. In Waco, the Bears' story is about faith, patience, and Scott Drew's belief — and the championship that proved it all.
The 2010 Elite Eight team — Ekpe Udoh's shot-blocking, LaceDarius Dunn's scoring, the overtime classic against Mississippi State — was the 'we're back' moment, proof that Drew's rebuild had reached the sport's doorstep. Waco embraced the Bears completely: the Ferrell Center's 'Bear Pit' became one of the Big 12's great student sections, and the community that stood by the program through the darkness got to celebrate the light. Drew's 'culture of JOY' became a national talking point — faith-based, positive, and ruthlessly competitive. The 2021 title was the culmination, but the culture was the real championship.
Which made 2025-26 so jarring. For the first time since 2018, Baylor missed the NCAA Tournament — and it wasn't close. Drew rolled the dice on the most radical experiment of his tenure: a roster with literally zero returning players, built entirely from the portal and the freshman class. The talent was obvious — Wyoming sniper Obi Agbim, Oregon State's Michael Rataj, Omaha's JJ White, five-star freshman Tounde Yessoufou, Andre Iguodala II — but a team of strangers played like strangers, and in the Big 12 that's fatal. Midseason brought a jolt of intrigue when Drew added James Nnaji, the 7-foot former EuroLeague center and 2023 NBA Draft pick, but even that couldn't salvage the year. Rataj drifted to the bench. The Bears stayed home in March. Drew's own verdict was blunt: "Hopefully we never go down that direction again."
The response has been retention, retention, retention. Seven players from last year's roster are back for 2026-27 — a seismic shift in philosophy for a program that had been living year to year in the portal. Isaac Williams, the team's most improved player, signed a two-year deal to stay in Waco. Juslin Bodo Bodo, the 6-foot-11 back-to-back Big South Defensive Player of the Year who missed all of last season with an arm injury, is finally healthy and ready to anchor the paint. Young pieces like Iguodala II, Maikcol Perez, and Mayo Soyoye, who all redshirted a year ago, give Drew the continuity he craved.
The new additions are targeted, not wholesale: sharpshooters Brett Decker Jr. and Isaac Celiscar to space the floor, playmaking point guard Kayden Mingo to run the show, and defensive-minded forward Evan Chatman to do the dirty work. Gone are Yessoufou and Cameron Carr, who moved on to the pros, but the core idea is stability — a team that knows each other, knows the system, and knows what Baylor basketball is supposed to look like.
The stakes are real. Drew is in his 23rd season, the dean of Big 12 coaches, and the 2021 title increasingly feels like another era as Kansas, Houston, and the league's new blood keep raising the bar. Foster Pavilion — the gleaming riverfront arena that replaced the Ferrell Center — deserves a team worthy of the building. The culture of JOY survived the worst season in nearly a decade intact; now it needs wins to match. If the retention bet pays off, Baylor is back in the Big 12 race and back in March. If it doesn't, the questions about what comes after the glory years get louder. In Waco, they still believe. They've seen Scott Drew do the impossible before.
