Opinion: The real Baylor is back and the timing couldn’t be better

INDIANAPOLIS — When Baylor went on pause Feb. 5 due to COVID-19 cases within the program, it seemed like an all-time stroke of bad luck. At the time, the Bears were decimating the Big 12, had a real shot at finishing the regular season undefeated and had wrestled the narrative from Gonzaga about who was the best team in the country. 

“When the pause hits, your first instinct is: You’re in trouble,” coach Scott Drew said. 

For every coach in the country, there was no manual for how to deal with this, nobody to call for advice, no track record for how a team that had been playing at such a high level for a couple months would respond after getting completely shut down for three weeks. 

But in Drew’s most optimistic moments, he had hoped that the timing of Baylor’s mid-season break would ultimately prove to be fortuitous, giving the Bears just enough time to rebuild themselves before the games really started to matter. 

“I was thinking, if and when we could play long enough, it would help us from the standpoint that when you're away from the game for three weeks and you’re watching everyone else play it makes you hungrier to be back together and be playing,” Drew said. “February can be a grind during the season, and we had some time away to reflect. But there’s no guarantee for how you’re going to come back, when you’re going to come back or if you’re going to make it far enough where it can pay off.” 

Baylor, in fact, has made it far enough. In Sunday’s 76-63 win over No. 9 seed Wisconsin at Hinkle Fieldhouse to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2017, Baylor finally played at the level it had reached before the COVID-19 pause and sent a strong message to the rest of the field that it’s a real threat to win the national title. 

The reason? It’s as simple as practice. 

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