2004 Big 12 Conference Media Day - Kansas City, Mo.
Oct. 28, 2004

TRANSCRIPT (Head Coach Scott Drew, players Tommy Swanson & Tim Bush)

MODERATOR: At this time we would like to welcome the Bears from Baylor. Coach, we would like you to have the opportunity to introduce your young men and make a statement or two.

COACH DREW: Thank you very much. To my immediate left is Tim Bush, a transfer from LSU. He will be a sophomore on the court available after first semester concludes.

One interesting note on Tim Bush, he came in weighing 276, and we had to get him down right away because the football coaches were getting awful excited. He is weighing in now at 228. He will be available for us at the end of the first semester.

Tommy Swanson, we have one scholarship player returning and that is him. He is a junior at Baylor University and he is our long?returning scholarship player and, basically, the experience we have on our team from the Big 12 past.

Opening statement: I was born in Kansas City. My dad went to William Jewell so it's great to get back here. I love Gates Barbecue.

As far as Big 12 goes, we are excited to be back in the Big 12 tournament, have an opportunity to participate in that. Whenever you are a coach or player, I know the most exciting and thrilling opportunities is to compete in a conference tournament, and I know we are very excited to be a part of that, and we know that the fans here do a great job and the hospitality they provide here make it a first class event, so thank you.

MODERATOR: Okay, Coach, thank you very much. We will take questions from the floor now.

Q. Coach, could you talk about your incoming class and what impact they will have on the program?

COACH DREW: Well, considering we only have one returning scholarship player in Tommy, they better have immediate impact on the program. We are very excited about the incoming players. Right now we have five scholarship players available first semester. We will have seven available second semester. What our coaches are really excited about is every day we improve in practice, and this is the foundation for the future of Baylor basketball.

Hopefully these people will be around for two, three, four years now. This can be the foundation that helps move up our program and return it to where it once was.

Q. Scott, can you tell yet what your playing style will be and who the guys playing prominent roles in that will be?

COACH DREW: The nice thing is people ask, "When you have five scholarship guys, does it make it tough on playing time?" And I say not really. That's one thing in practices the last few days we have been at 10, and they can run, but they can't hide. They are in every drill, in every situation, so it's great for them. It gives them a great opportunity. As far as our style, I would think the nice thing, last year we were up here in the same situation with a limited numbers. We did have a lot more experience, but we had limited numbers.

The nice thing is it taught us what we can do and can't do in order to have a chance to compete with the status of where we are at. So I know we are not going to fastbreak every position because we don't have five to seven scholarship guys that can play 40 minutes in that type of tempo, but I do know that, basically, last year we were able to find a way to be competitive and to win a couple games, and that's what we would like to do this year as well.

Q. In terms of talent available to you, how does this group stack up with last year's group?

COACH DREW: What I think most coaches will tell you is that experience wins you a lot of games, and right now we don't have the experience. What we do have is the youth and excitement. These people are given an opportunity to play and reach their dreams and goals of playing in Division One basketball in the conference of Big 12 and Baylor.

I think as time goes on, obviously, we, as coaches, hope we reach that same level, but right now you know there is a difference between a fifth-year senior and fourth-year senior and an incoming freshman that has never competed at the Big 12 level.

Q. Can you talk about a couple of international (inaudible) what effect that might have?

COACH DREW: Well, Aaron Bruce has been practicing with us, and he is the Australian recruit. Originally he was going to UCLA and had to return to Australia and finish up some school work. So, basically, if I can sum him up in a couple short words, he came down and looked at our football players and wondered why they were playing with pads. He played in the Australian?American rules football or American rules football, and a hard?nosed rugby-type player, somebody that leaves it on the floor.

A lot of people like how Matt Sayman played for us in the past, and he is someone similar to that. He has done excellent in the classroom and excellent on the floor, and I am very happy he is at Baylor University. As far as Mamadou [Diene] goes, he will be available at semester, so I can tell you more about him when he is here.

Q. Could you tell us the two that are coming in after the first semester, why that is?

COACH DREW: Well, Tim Bush is a transfer student so he becomes NCAA eligible at the end of the semester. Mamadou was delayed for personal reasons.

Q. You surprised a lot of people last year by how competitive you were, and you lost a lot of the talent. How are you going to be able to build the program with the guys you have this year after what you did last year?

COACH DREW: Well, I know, to start with, Tommy was a part of that team last year, and he knows what it took for us to get to that level of competitiveness toward the end of the year. I think he has done a great job leading our young guys and telling them, "You need to go harder, go faster, box out better." I think he has done a good job relaying that, and it's just a matter of time when they gain that experience.

It's one thing to say, "Don't put your hand on the oven because it's hot," and it's another thing to get burned once, and the coach is right, don't put your hand there. We will get that baptism by fire this year, too.

Q. How does it feel not to be able to play in a conference tournament last year? You had a pretty good game your last year. How did that leave you feeling?

Tommy Swanson: It was definitely a hard loss. Staying competitive at Oklahoma at their house, and for that to be your last game. I think our whole team followed the whole Big 12 Conference, some of us even went to the games. I think through that experience it makes you a lot hungrier and anxious to get back on the floor and give it your all again.

Q. Did you go to some of the games?

Tommy Swanson: Yes, I did.

Q. Was it hard to watch them?

Tommy Swanson: Oh, yes, just thinking, man, our team could have just as easily gone pretty far in the conference and stay competitive, not saying we would have won all the games, but we would have gave the effort to give ourselves a chance to make it pretty far or just give ourselves a chance to make it in the first couple of rounds of the tournament.

Q. Did your team surprise you by how many games they won last year? You saw the talent. Did they exceed your expectations?

COACH DREW: I really didn't try to put any expectations on the team last year because we didn't know what they were capable of. As a staff the only expectations we put upon ourselves was to play as hard as we could every game and improve. I think as we did that, then we found out we achieved more than we thought we were capable of.

It's the same thing with this group, it's really hard to put expectations on us as a team yet because we were still new coming together. No one has really been proven. We don't know what we are capable of doing yet. It's the same philosophy.

Every day we want to get better and make sure we are leaving it all on the court.

Q. Will your walk-ons receive a lot of playing time this year?

COACH DREW: We have several walk-ons. I think we lead the nation in walk-ons. With that, Mark Shepherd is somebody, 6'8", 6'9", that has really improved his game and someone that should be able to help us out, especially because we lack height.

We take the team to church every year, and a couple people thought we were a baseball team at first. Us coaches don't like that. We have to get taller guys in the future. He is someone that will help us there.

Richard Hurd is somebody that comes from Heritage Christian where they won a state title, 6'5", 6'6", very athletic, somebody that will help us. From last year Ryan Pryor and Turner Phipps are people that have improved their game and will be able to help us.

I think it's a situation where every day those guys get better and get used to playing in college basketball and will be able to help us with that as well.

Are there any walk-ons that impress you, Tim?

Tim Bush: They all impress me. Everybody has done a great job.

Q. For Tim, how has your game changed since you lost the weight?

COACH DREW: He can dunk now.

Tim Bush: Obviously, my vertical went up, and I have gotten a whole lot stronger. The best thing about it was through all that losing the weight, I kept most of my strength. Like I am still maxing out at 315 and squatting a whole lot. So that was a positive thing for me. Just I am a whole lot quicker, more quicker, mobile. I think I am moving better on the court. You have to ask Coach Drew about that.

COACH DREW: When he was 276, he made it up and down one time. Now he goes a couple. That's good, we will have him in transition.

Q. I was going to ask Tim if, from your perspective, you had been able to get a bit of a handle on how much talent is playable and how this team may eventually (inaudible)?

Tim Bush: I can say the future for Baylor basketball is looking great right now. As far as right now, we are going to continue to work out hard, and that's all that we can do. I believe we bring it to the table every day in practice. Like we haven't set any goals or expectations for ourselves, because we don't know that yet. Like I said, we are going to continue to work out hard, keep improving.

Q. Can you talk about how did you get to 276? Was that natural for you?

COACH DREW: Crawfish etouffe.

Tim Bush: I was 230 in high school, didn't play my senior year, so I picked up weight from that. Then when I got to LSU, didn't play there. So when I got to Baylor, I played, so I am 228. There you go.

Q. So when you play, you weigh 228; when you don't play, you are 276?

COACH DREW: He is in trouble when he retires.

Q. Tim, you said you went from 276 to 228. What helped you get there as far as a regimen.

COACH DREW: Before he answers that, he has a book on sale on losing weight.

Tim Bush: Well, I guess when I wasn't playing, I wasn't watching what I was eating. My senior year probably hurt me the most because I wasn't playing ball at all. I was doing nothing. That's what made me pick up the weight I did pick up.

As far as losing the weight, I started eating healthy and worked out a lot. I worked really hard. Just monitoring my eating habits and eating the right things. Tommy said the drill, three miles around every day after practice and stuff. Yeah, eating right, eating healthy, just pretty much lost a lot of body fat. I picked off body fat. I burned a lot of body fat.

Q. Tommy, teams go through a transition every year and it's always different for the guys still there, but I can't imagine that many players go through the transition of seeing teammates move on like you have seen. Could you talk about what that's like?

Tommy Swanson: It's kind of difficult sometimes to think how would the team have been without the transferring and stuff, but at the same time you have to understand, well, I am put in this situation for a certain reason, and so I might as well make the most of the situation. I mean, just go with it in stride. God wouldn't put me in a situation if he wasn't there for me.

I mean, my teammates have done a wonderful job doing what they were supposed to do. With me being one of the captains on the team this year, they made so many strides, just going to class, doing drills hard, pushing each other in practice. It's not really a hard transition for me exactly, just being more vocal and practicing and stuff and just pushing my teammates. Tim, and a lot of other guys are just working hard each day improving their games, so it was continuing staying competitive against each other and getting ready for the conference play.

Q. You are a year into this now, Coach. How long until things become normal, with the past not always brought up when you are talking to somebody?

COACH DREW: I think last year we made huge strides from the standpoint at the beginning of the year most of the conversation focused on that, and by the end of the year everyone was pretty interested in how we were being so successful and playing people so competitively, and very proud of the effort that the players played with.

I think this year, because of our lack of numbers, the past will be brought up again because of that, but next year we will be up to 12 scholarship players and be able to play five-on-five in practice with scholarship guys.

We are on the road to recovery. As far as right now we feel great with the type of people we have representing Baylor University, and now it's just a matter of us raising our basketball depth.

And, as I said, recruiting gets easier and easier each year because as recruits come in, they see what a great school Baylor is academically, the Christian heritage, and then as far as the family atmosphere.

The players are the ones that sell the program more than anybody else. If you go to visit a school, what's going to either sell you or not sell you is the type of teammates you are going to have. The type of people we are going to have on the team are going to attract other good players.

MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. We wish you the best in your season.