Georgia State (24-9) will Baylor (24-9) in the NCAA tournament on Thursday in Jacksonville. (Photo courtesy of Randy Wilson and Georgia State)
Baylor coach Scott Drew participated on a teleconference this morning that I couldn’t participate in because i was on a flight (where I ended up sitting next to Jordan Session’s grandmother, who was very nice.).
Anyway, here’s a few things Drew said about Georgia State ahead of Thursday’s matchup in the first/second round of the NCAA tournament in Jacksonville.
On his familiarity with Ron Hunter:
Drew and Hunter coached against each other when he was Valparaiso and Hunter at IUPUI.
“He did an outstanding job at IUPUI. Tremendous coach. I have a lot of respect for him.”
“Nobody likes to get injured. I know he’s in some pain right now. At the end of the day he’s a gamer, he’ll go.
“He used to be pretty active on the sidelines. There were times the ball would get into the corner and he’d jump into the trap and it’d be six on five.
“He might be a little slowed down this week. But I know with my brother playing for us at Valpo, I know father-sons stick together and his son, who will be a first-round pick if he comes out this year, is an outstanding player.”
“As far as Ware goes, he looked really good in the championship game. He looks fully recovered. He’s somebody you have to tip your hat to for being fully recovered and battling back. We wont be cheering for him for these 40 minutes but we will cheer for him later because he’s overcome his injury.”
On Georgia State's lack of height. The Panthers feature one player how is 6-10 and several who are 6-7 to 6-8. Of course, Baylor's best players are 6-7 and 6-8:
“No matter who you are playing you are trying to take advantage of matchups in areas you can exploit. At the end of the day that’s where the 3-point line has been such an equalizer. It’s allowed smaller teams and smaller guys to be so effective.
With us, most college basketball teams with the exception of Kentucky has a lot of smaller guys and smaller teams. It seems like everyone has a stretch four and one big guy. Mid-major, high-major, low-major, it doesn’t matter, basketball is more perimeter-oriented. Look at the NBA, there’s not a lot of true post players anymore.”
