By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
When thinking of the greatest coaching trees in college basketball, names such as Larry Brown, Bob Knight or Tom Izzo come to mind. Through his former assistants, though, Baylor head coach Scott Drew is quickly crafting a legacy that could one day be considered one of the most elite in the sport.
Drew, who came to Baylor in 2003, began his head coaching career by taking on what was viewed by many as the most daunting rebuild in all of college basketball. Featured on Drew’s original staff was Jerome Tang, the current Kansas State head coach and 2023 Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year winner.
Tang was with Baylor from 2003-2022, when he made his journey to Manhattan, Kan. The defensive mastermind was notorious for elite recruiting and building a hard-nosed culture for the Bears. During his tenure under Drew, Tang compiled eight top-25 recruiting classes and played a major role in Baylor winning the 2021 national championship.
Tang and Drew remain closely connected, sharing coaching tips and enjoying competing against one another. When Kansas State lost to the Bears in Waco amid a difficult 2025 season, Drew came to the visitors’ locker room after the game to share words of encouragement with Tang’s team.
“He told the guys about the time we started conference 2-8 and everybody was giving up on us,” Tang said in the postgame press conference. “We finished conference 9-9, won three games in the Big 12 tournament and ended up making the Sweet Sixteen ... It meant a lot coming from him.”
Tang was accompanied in his time at Baylor by Grant McCasland, now the head coach at Texas Tech. The trio formed a three-headed coaching monster from 2011-2015 at the helm of the green and gold.
McCasland, a former Baylor player, contributed to a coaching staff that brought the Bears out of the ground. Before McCasland’s return to Waco, Drew’s teams had seen the NCAA tournament only twice, in 2008 and 2010.
The Bears made the NCAA Tournament in four of McCasland’s five seasons, including trips to the Elite Eight and Sweet Sixteen. The lone year the Bears didn’t make the tournament with McCasland ended with an NIT championship banner hung in Waco.
That wasn’t the only National Invitation Tournament title for McCasland. After leaving Baylor to become the head coach at North Texas, he brought the Mean Green an NIT championship in 2023.
Following that season, the former Baylor assistant was brought back to the Big 12 to take on the helm at Texas Tech. This past season, McCasland hit his stride, taking the Red Raiders to the Elite Eight and producing the 2025 Big 12 Player of the Year in JT Toppin.
Drew’s elite coaching tree doesn’t end with the two legendary former assistants now thriving in the Big 12.
John Jakus, another key contributor to Baylor’s national championship run, left Baylor after a 13-year tenure to take over the head coaching role at Florida Atlantic in 2024. Jakus is the definition of a homegrown Drew product, having begun his coaching career in Baylor’s graduate assistant program and working his way up to associate head coach during his last two years with the Bears.
Other Drew assistants to find success across college basketball include Matt Driscoll, the winningest coach in University of North Florida history; Wichita State head coach Paul Mills; McNeese head coach Bill Armstrong; and Kentucky associate head coach Alvin Brooks III.
Drew’s Bears take the floor again against Tarleton State at 8 p.m. Friday at the Foster Pavilion. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
