WACO, Texas -- When a reporter asked Baylor coach Scott Drew whether his team could double its victories in Big 12 play, from four in 2004-05 to an 8-8 mark this season, the still baby-faced Drew struggled for an answer.
"Our big guy hurt his ankle in practice yesterday," Drew admitted Thursday , somewhat reluctantly. "That could change things a bit."
Such is the state of the Baylor basketball program, more than three years after perhaps the worst scandal in college sports history, one in which then-Bears player Carlton Dotson murdered teammate Patrick Dennehy, with former coach Dave Bliss resigning after he attempted to cover up numerous major violations of NCAA rules.
For the first time in four seasons, the Bears will have nearly a full complement of scholarships -- they're only two scholarship players under the NCAA maximum of 13 -- and will play a full schedule. And, believe it or not, Baylor also has a pretty talented roster, thanks to three consecutive top-20 recruiting classes.
"We're slowly but surely getting to 13," Drew said. "We never really gave ourselves a timetable. First of all, we wanted to bring in players who would represent the university the way it should be represented. Now that we've brought in high-character players, it's been easier to bring in more. The talent level and depth have improved each year. We have a talented and deep team, but we're very young."
In fact, eight of the Bears' 11 scholarship players are freshmen or sophomores and only two returning players with game experience are taller than 6-foot-6.
That is why Drew was so concerned about center Mamadou Diene, who sprained his left ankle in practice earlier this week. Drew feared Diene had a stress fracture and would be sidelined for several weeks, but an MRI on Thursday revealed only a sprained ligament in the ankle; the 7-footer will miss 10 to 14 days, including Saturday's exhibition game against Texas A&M-Commerce and possibly the Nov. 11 opener against Angelo State.
Still, Drew and his players are excited about the season, one that starts nearly two months earlier than last year, when the Bears were banned from playing nonconference games as part of five years worth of NCAA sanctions stemming from the Bliss era.
"We're obviously more excited than anyone else in the country to play a nonconference schedule," Drew said. "At the same time, I think it makes our players appreciate every opportunity they have to play. There's a lot more sense of urgency and they haven't hit a wall yet.
"When there's light at the end of the tunnel, it motivates you more. Last season, that light was a long way off."
Last season, Baylor didn't play its first game until a 79-61 loss at Texas Tech on Jan. 11, nearly two months after most Division I-A teams began playing. The Bears didn't win their first game last season until a 72-70 overtime win over Kansas State on Feb. 1. They finished 4-12 in Big 12 play but won four of their last five home games. The Bears' season ended with a 65-61 loss to Colorado in the first round of the Big 12 tournament in Dallas, their fifth consecutive postseason defeat.
Drew, the oldest son of longtime Valparaiso coach Homer Drew, succeeded his father as the Crusaders' coach before the 2002-03 season, becoming one of college basketball's youngest coaches at 31. He led his first team to a 20-11 record and a berth in the postseason NIT. Then he succeeded Bliss as Baylor's coach in August 2003, inheriting a team with only six scholarship players.
"I went from having one of the most talented teams to one of the least talented, in terms of athleticism, depth and height," Drew said. "That's made me a better coach because you have to adjust your coaching style to give your players a chance to be successful."
The Bears won eight games in Drew's first season and nine in the second, despite having only one returning scholarship player in 2004-05. Last season was even more of a struggle. With the abbreviated schedule, all the Bears could do for months was practice, while everyone else played games.
"It's a great feeling this year," guard Aaron Bruce said. "This is the first year that I've been here that we've had a full roster and full schedule. That's weird for a junior to say. The buzz and the atmosphere around the team is better than it's been since I've been here. Not playing a nonconference schedule last year had a huge effect on our season. I think we were peaking at the end of the year. For most teams, that's what happens at the end of the [nonconference] schedule. They iron things out during the preseason."
Baylor still has plenty of things to iron out this preseason, but it should be able to rely on its guards. Bruce, a junior from Australia, is one of the most underrated players in the Big 12. He has made 40.2 percent of his 3-point attempts in two seasons and averaged 13.2 points as a sophomore.
Sophomore guard Curtis Jerrells, from Austin, Texas, led Baylor with 13.5 points, 3.3 assists and 1.4 steals last season. He is the team's best ballhandler and perimeter defender.
Guard Patrick Fields, one of only two seniors, averaged 8.3 points last season. The former walk-on at Ole Miss played off the bench last season but should assume a starting role this year. Sophomore Henry Dugat, a streaky scorer, returns after averaging 7.2 points off the bench as a freshman.
"It's a whole lot easier getting focused and motivated this year," Jerrells said. "It's a ton easier. Last year, me and the other freshmen were just anxious to play. We would have liked to play earlier. We just wanted to play."
Drew hopes freshman Demond "Tweety" Carter, the first McDonald's All-American to sign with Baylor, matures enough to play point guard. Bruce and Jerrells share the ballhandling duties, but Carter could help free them up to do more scoring in the motion offense that Drew learned from his father.
Carter, a 5-foot-10 native of Reserve, La., started playing varsity basketball at Reserve Christian School as a seventh-grader and scored nearly 7,500 points in six seasons on the varsity team. His 5,748 points in his last four seasons of high school ranks second all-time in the country, and he was named Mr. Basketball in Louisiana as a senior.
"He can score," Drew said. "One thing I think he'll show people is he can pass better than people give him credit for. He was just asked to score a lot of points in high school. Sometimes when you hear of someone scoring that many points, you assume he's a limited player and ball hog. But he's a team player."
If the Bears are going to improve their record, though, Drew knows his team must rebound better. Last season, opponents grabbed 669 rebounds compared to Baylor's 542 in 17 games.
Diene, a native of Senegal, has an 88-inch wingspan and gained more than 50 pounds after weighing less than 200 pounds two years ago. Diene led the Big 12 in blocked shots last season, and once the sophomore is healthy Drew expects him to be more of an offensive player. He averaged 3.2 points as a freshman.
"The biggest progress he has made is with his body," Drew said. "Offensively, he continues to improve daily."
Sophomore Kevin Rogers, from Dallas, replaces Tommy Swanson as the starting power forward. He averaged 6.3 points as a freshman and is the team's best leaper. LSU transfer Tim Bush, who started 41 games the last two seasons, will play off the bench as a senior. Bush, a 6-foot-6 native of New Orleans, is an undersized frontcourt player.
The Bears add two more big men this season: forward Jari Vanttaja, who redshirted last season, and freshman Josh Lomers. Vanttaja, a 6-foot-10 native of Finland, is a typical European forward -- he'd rather shoot from the perimeter than trade sweat in the paint.
Lomers, a 7-footer from Boerne, Texas, weighs 265 pounds and is trying to get in better shape to run up and down the floor. He probably will start at center until Diene returns.
"We just want to come out and compete," Rogers said. "Last year, there were some games we dropped that we should have won. We just want to show everybody we can compete at this level."
At least the Bears will get to do that sooner rather than later this season.
"I can only describe this as a miraculous turnaround," Bruce said. "I think Coach Drew and his coaching staff have done an outstanding job of taking a program at the bottom -- in the cellar, really -- and we've been on a steady incline ever since."
Mark Schlabach covers college football and men's college basketball for ESPN.com. You can contact him at schlabachma@yahoo.com.