WACO, Texas — It’s a story bound for Hollywood.
Or, at least, the shelves the next time you walk into a book store.
“He kept talking about how we were going to build something for the future,” Matt Sayman said. “And, looking back on it, we see it, but at the time, we couldn’t.”
Sayman was a guard on Baylor’s basketball teams from 2000 to 2004. When he left the Ferrell Center for the final time, he held the record for the most games played wearing a Baylor uniform.
“I was a part of Coach Bliss’ first recruiting class,” Sayman said. “When he came to Baylor, there was a lot of excitement about his ability to rebuild a program and to take it from nothing to something. And, to be a part of his plan for that was pretty cool.”
Sayman was at Baylor in 2003, when all of the work the Bears put into building the basketball program came crashing down in front of them in scandal.
Sayman’s book The Leftovers tells the story of what happened after a murder, a cover-up and a lot of collateral damage.
“When we found out what happened to him and Dotty, that was the biggest tragedy of the whole thing was just the loss of Patrick,” Sayman said. “Then, to play for a coaching staff for three years that you love, that you really trust, and to find out that they’ve been doing a lot of things wrong right in front of you, I felt a little naïve. That was difficult.”
Sayman said his perspective is that of one of the players left behind amidst one of college sports’ darkest scandals.
The players were left to help a young Scott Drew clean up the mess.
“Recruiting-wise recruits just remember Waco for Elite Eight’s, No. 1 seeding, a lot of wins,” Drew told 6 Sports. “They didn’t know, ‘You guys only won four games one year? You didn’t have a non-conference schedule?’ The people we’re recruiting now weren’t even born when we began here.”
Eighteen years after he first arrived, Drew had finally finished what was, arguably, the biggest turnaround in college basketball history. And he did it just 15 years after winning only four games in a season with no non-conference games.
It led to his own hard-bound story: The Road to Joy.
“For me, personally, it was the perfect time to share what God’s done with our program and acknowledge all of the players, athletic staff members, administration, athletic directors, everyone who’s been a part of it,” Drew said.
The books offer two perspectives of a single journey and two perspectives of a season filled with trials, tribulations and goodbyes.
“I played with 39 different teammates in four years,” Sayman said. “A lot of dudes in and out of the door, and I was able to remain.”
Both with a similar underlying message of resilience.
“The Baylor story is a great story,” Drew said. “It stands for a lot more than just a game on the court.”
You can watch the full interview with Scott Drew about his book below:
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