The search committee vetting candidates for the open UVA Basketball coach job is now looking over a fourth candidate – Scott Drew, who won a national championship at Baylor in 2021.
This information comes to us from two sources from two different points of contact – one who has heard directly from the committee about Drew now being in the mix, the second who was apprised of the interest in Drew from contacts within the big-money donor community.
Scott Drew: Available?
I’m not sure what I think personally about the idea that Drew, who has been at Baylor since 2003, with a 460-250 record, the national title, two Elite Eights and two Sweet Sixteens, is actually available, or even approachable.
According to USA Today, Drew’s salary last year was $5.1 million; we don’t know the exact details of his compensation because Baylor is a private school, and thus not subject to open-records laws.
There were reports that both Louisville and Kentucky reached out to Drew last spring about their open jobs, and he rebuffed both offers.
One of the reports about why he turned down the Louisville job included the claim that Baylor had offered Drew an $8.5 million-a-year extension to keep him on campus, but I’ve not seen any corroboration on that.
Another report offered the nugget that his contract includes a $4.5 million buyout, which I can accept as being at least in the ballpark for a coach with his resume.
A third report went into detail about how he wanted to remain in Waco because his wife and three children simply like it there, and don’t want to pack up and move, which is understandable, given his long tenure at Baylor.
So, he turned down Louisville, turned down (gulp!) Kentucky, two of the best jobs in the college basketball business, just a year ago.
He may or may not have signed a lucrative extension.
His family is probably still just as happy in Waco as they were a year ago.
How realistic this might be
I’m trying to figure out who Drew might know in the UVA Basketball world that would make the search-committee and big-money folks think he’s a realistic target, and I have an idea.
There’s one guy that I regularly converse with who has everybody who is anybody in college sports in his phone.
There’d have to be some kind of personal connection to make it realistic that our folks would know that Drew would be interested.
One other part to this section of the story relevant here: it’s been made clear to me that money is not going to be an obstacle, so, if it takes $5 million-plus-per-year and a one-time multimillion-dollar buyout of an existing contract to get the guy, I’ve been told that would happen.
The candidate pool
Drew’s name being thrown into the mix gives us two distinct batches of top candidates now.
I’d put Drew and Shaka Smart in the splash category, of big-name coaches with proven track records who would win the press conference.
The second category is up-and-comers, Ryan Odom at VCU and Bob Richey at Furman, guys more akin to Tony Bennett at Washington State, who had been on the radar for a lot of top jobs when we ended up getting him, but was still looked at as a guy who would have to grow into the job.
ICYMI
There’s something to be said about going in either direction.
Looking at the current Top 10, Auburn and Tennessee rebuilt their programs with big-name guys (Bruce Pearl, Rick Barnes) who had success elsewhere
Flip side, Florida snatched Todd Golden from San Francisco, and Iowa State got TJ Otzelberger from UNLV (which had poached him from South Dakota State), and things are working out well for both.
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
