SAN ANTONIO — The sting is still evident in Scott Drew’s voice. It has been two years since L.J. Cryer walked into the Baylor coach’s office and told Drew their basketball marriage had ended.
OK, enough with the flowery language: It was a transfer, the cold, hard kind we’re used to these days. After three seasons of developing Cryer into an emerging shooting guard, Drew got the call he didn’t want to answer in 2023.
“Most people can relate,” Drew explained Sunday to CBS Sports. “It’s like a boyfriend, girlfriend relationship. Whenever it breaks up, it hurts, and you feel like what could I have done better? With us — and probably other programs — that are not used to not losing guys, the first couple especially you’re hurt and disappointed.”
Those days still marked the nascent stage of the portal, when coaches were still surprised — and wounded — that a player they developed would take all that work to another program. In this case it was an in-state Big 12 rival closer to home. Cryer is from Katy, Texas, 30 miles west of the Houston campus but 170 southeast of Baylor’s home in Waco.
The reasons? They don’t really matter at the moment. Houston is in the national championship game for the third time ever after a miracle comeback against Duke in a national semifinal. Cryer led the Cougars with 26 points, adding to a tournament resume that has put him in the conversation for most outstanding player of the Final Four.
But Cryer stands out most in the lead up to Monday night for a couple of reasons.
He used that Baylor opportunity to become the Cougars’ leading scorer this season (15.6 points). He is one game away from becoming the first Division I player to win national championships at two different schools.
“It’s definitely cool to make history at two different schools,” Cryer said. “But if I could have done it at the same school I preferably would have done it that way.”
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