GEICO PLAYERS ERA MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP

November 24, 2025

Scott Drew

Dan Skillings

MGM Grand Garden Arena

Baylor Bears

Postgame Press Conference

Baylor - 81, Creighton - 74

SCOTT DREW: First, it's a blessing to play in this tournament. Such great teams, such great competition. Such great opportunity for our players, and God's given us a great group to work with this year.

I'm really proud how far we've come and playing against these teams. We'll see where we have to keep going and what areas we need to improve in.

Really, really proud of our guys' toughness tonight. Did a great job on the glass, and Creighton's a good rebounding team, so we really worked hard for that.

Q. Dan, every time they found momentum, you guys responded. What allowed you guys to do that today?

DAN SKILLINGS JR.: Just staying together, having that joy with each other when we get into the huddles, knowing every huddle is important and just to say a couple good words, a couple positive words.

Just keeping our heads up and keeping our chin up and picking up our teammates, which if they're not feeling well or they get back-doored, they just get out of their game, we just pick them up to bring that joy back into their game. Because that's when we play the best, when we have a joy in our game.

Q. Did you guys have one more of those sequences down the stretch? I think they tied it 62-62, and then you guys had that 8-0 run, they burned a timeout. How big was that sequence?

DAN SKILLINGS JR.: Yeah, we work situational stuff in practice all the time. Coach Drew does a great job and the coaching staff getting us prepared for those moments. So we've been in those moments millions of times, and we just executed it.

Q. I would think after the Tarleton State game, rebounding was a big emphasis in practice last week. Is that accurate?

DAN SKILLINGS JR.: Very, very. I would say yes. It's something we harp on, it's something we think is one of our strong suits, is rebounding. And we just needed to get back to it and everyone knowing like in the Big 12, that's going to -- you're going to win games getting offensive and defensive rebounds and not giving the other team second-chance points. I feel we executed that pretty well today.

Q. Five guys in double figures today. How does it work on offense when, instead of feeding the hot hand, everybody has the hot hand?

DAN SKILLINGS JR.: That's one thing we talk about, when someone's got it going, we make sure we try to find them. And bunch of guys had it going today and feeling hot, and we tried our best to feed them when we could and getting everybody involved still at the same time.

And I feel like we did a great job with that today and just stayed poised and stayed under control and believed in our team.

Q. Coach, you guys have a smaller lineup, and you were able to match that with energy. You mentioned toughness, aggressiveness. How have you leaned on that as your superpower when you're matching it up with bigger teams?

SCOTT DREW: Yeah, we've got guys that are very competitive. They want to win. Our strength coach, Charlie Melton, does a great job, our trainer, Dave Snyder, getting them prepared. And at the end of the day, JJ tweaked his ankle. We'll see how he is. But we've got guys that have played a lot of minutes, upperclassmen playing and battling. We're fine.

Q. Cameron Carr, phenomenal game, first two years of his career, combined 18 games, now he's leading this squad. What do you think people will learn more about him in this season?

SCOTT DREW: He was pacing himself the first couple of years. Cam's an explosive scorer, but what makes him such an asset is he can pass as well. He can rebound. He can defend, and as those areas continue to improve and get better, our team will just be better and better because he's got a lot of God-given ability that you can't teach with his length and athleticism.

Q. This is a team that's just playing with each other for the first time this year with all new guys. How would you say this has either been a big opportunity for you to mesh all those pieces together right away?

SCOTT DREW: I think, again, you work as hard as you can in the portal and trying to put together a team in a short period of time. We're always prayerful. We get who God wants us to have.

We've got a good group that we enjoy going to practice with. They enjoy being together, and life is short. You want to be around people you enjoy, and that's been a blessing.

Coaches, we want to win every game, but it's a joy working with these guys.

Q. Scott, I wanted to ask about Cam. What have you seen from him at Tennessee? He didn't put a ton on film at Tennessee, obviously. What attracted him to you? And when he got to Baylor, what was his mindset? Where was he at mentally, and just kind of talk about his development since arriving?

SCOTT DREW: Well, we've had several players from Link here. It's an outstanding school. And Ja'Kobe Walter, Iggy Iguodala, you got Cam. We've always recruited there. We knew about him. He was highly touted. And Coach Barnes is a great coach. They just had a lot of depth at that guard spot.

And Cam was a heck of a player, but the guys playing were really good as well. So sometimes you sit, you wait, you get better and you improve. And we're the beneficiary of that.

I think Cam's done a great job in allowing himself to be coached, and he leans on Dan and Michael and several other guys, and I think he's done a good job listening to them and buying in as well.

Q. I'd be curious just to hear your quick thoughts on just team chemistry out there, quality opponent, how you guys went about executing the game plan and just how it felt to play an opponent of Creighton's caliber, but you guys were pretty well-rounded overall there. What's your assessment?

DAN SKILLINGS JR.: It's a God-given gift having a new team come together like this. I feel like this year we're entering our second season. The chemistry is beautiful. All the guys get together well, get along great. There's no egos on this team. Everybody simply just wants to win, whatever it takes to win, changing your role, whatever the coaches want us to do, like we want to win because at the end of the day no one's going to get what they want if we're not a winning team in March Madness.

So it's been a God-given blessing. I can't thank him enough. But just seeing this team come together and how we approached it today, all the way in film this morning, taking care of our bodies, getting treatment with Dave, getting extra lifts in, just how we run the board today was how we need to keep being on the boards every single game day, and I'm proud of the guys today.

Q. Coach, your thoughts on the announcement earlier today that the Players Era Festival is forming a $50 million equity partnership with the Big 12. They're going to have a 32-team event next year, and automatic bids are going to be given to the top eight teams from the previous years' Big 12 standings?

SCOTT DREW: I think our commissioner, Brett Yormark, has done a great job in being proactive and putting the Big 12 in the best position possible. We've had a lot of success in basketball. You can look at our KenPom numbers the last 10 years.

But he's done a great job as the game changes. As the rules change, making sure we're in position to keep being successful. So it's a very well-run tournament. It's our first time here. The professionalism and how everything is handled is first-class. So very impressed.