Scott Drew praises AJ Dybantsa, Big 12 after Baylor’s loss to BYU – Deseret News

Last year, Scott Drew got to see plenty of great performances from his freshman point guard Rob Wright III.

Tuesday night in Waco, Baylor’s head coach witnessed arguably the finest outing of Wright’s career, but this time as an opponent.

Wright, who transferred to BYU this past April after a season with the Bears, scored a personal-best 30 points with four rebounds and three assists in his return to Foster Pavilion, helping the Cougars earn a crucial 99-94 road victory over Baylor.

“There’s a reason we loved him last year, we’ve seen a lot of that,” Drew told reporters postgame of Wright’s Tuesday success.

But Wright wasn’t the only BYU player to dominate in Waco. Freshman phenom AJ Dybantsa scored 36 points on 14 of 20 shooting, adding seven assists and five rebounds as well.

“AJ was tremendous. I think what was really impressive was (his) seven assists to one turnover,” Drew said. “… He’s always going to score, but when he has seven assists, one turnover, it’s really tough.”

Despite shooting 16.7% from 3-point range, BYU still scored 99 points against Baylor, doing most of its damage down low for 64 paint points as Wright, Dybantsa and company consistently got downhill with ease.

“Our goal of trying to make them shoot jump shots didn’t work very well, because they got to the rim way too many times,” Drew said. “… We had pretty good gap help (on defense), but it wasn’t good enough. Great players are going to find a way to do what they do really well. AJ and Rob in the (paint) is a problem for the defense, so you’ve got to keep them out.”

While Baylor’s offense did score 94 points and shoot 51.6% for the night, the Bears coughed up 13 turnovers which resulted in 24 BYU points.

“A lot of those turnovers (were) self-inflicted wounds. To lose (24) points on turnovers, you’re not going to beat a good team and a well-coached team,” said Drew.

With the loss, Baylor falls to 13-11 on the season and 3-9 within the ultra competitive Big 12.

While it’s been a down year of sorts for the typically high-powered Bears, Drew didn’t hesitate to praise the rest of the Big 12 for its success in the current campaign.

“I think fans are being treated to a great, special year in the Big 12. There’s great basketball in the Big 12 and there’s more teams than ever that can play in the Final Four,” Drew said.

“What makes the league good is there’s no teams that you’re going in (thinking) you’re going to win by 30. Most leagues you can say, you know, ‘That night we’re going to win by 30, that night we’re going to win by 30.’ In the Big 12, you don’t get that. What happens is that affects your confidence and that affects your swag and really tests your manhood. At the end of the day, that’s why when you go through the gauntlet of the Big 12, you’ve been through the fire.

“I hope in the NCAA tournament, we’d love to be a part of that, but I’d love to see three teams in the Final Four from the Big 12 this year.”