'He's like the March magician': GCU coach Bryce Drew finds method to maddening season

When March hit, Grand Canyon was a different college basketball team. The Antelopes had their first WAC sweep of two teams this season, beating Southern Utah and Utah Tech on the road.

As a 5 seed, they gutted out four wins in five days in Las Vegas to claim the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship, the lowest seed to do that in the WAC since 2001.

They overcame foul trouble to their stars, they lit it up from behind the arc and they were clutch down the stretches of every game. And they are now dancing, heading to Denver as the 14 seed in the NCAA West Region to take on No. 3-seeded Gonzaga in the first round on Friday.

And third-year GCU coach Bryce Drew is pressing all the right buttons, He's calm and cool amid the storm, finding a way through the madness that could have ended up as a disastrous season after losing the star player in early January.

"It's the best basketball IQ of any coach I've ever seen," said GCU assistant coach Casey Shaw, who is married to Drew's sister. "I played for 13 years. I played five years in college. I've been a coach with other coaches. And he has a vision in a game that's incredible.

"I think there's a method to it, like this season. ... You have to learn how to lose before you can learn how to win. We needed games like when we went to Tarleton and got our butt kicked (an 81-62 WAC loss on Jan. 28). Now we can get back the next day in practice and he can just get them with discipline and accountability. And teach them what it takes to really win.

"The ups and downs of our season, then you get to March. He's like the March magician, man. His teams kind of peak at that time. That's what basketball is. It's really hard to run the table and then win at the end. You need ups and downs to develop character."

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Drew comes from an Indiana basketball family, staking his claim to March Madness fame, playing for his father, Homer, at Valparaiso. Bryce took an inbound pass with 2.5 seconds from the far end of the court and let loose a 23-foot 3-pointer as the final horn sounded. This is the 25th anniversary of "The Shot" that gave No. 13 Valpo a 70-69 win over No. 4 Mississippi in the first round of the 1998 NCAA tournament.

Before that play, Mississippi's Ansu Sesay was on the line with less than 10 seconds left and a chance to put the game away. He missed the first free throw. Homer Drew called time out. Sesay missed the second free throw. That led to Bryce Drew's shot which shocked the college basketball world.

Drew made a move similar to his father's in the WAC semifinal against top seed Sam Houston. With GCU leading 76-75 and eight seconds left, Sam Houston's Kaosi Ezeagu was on the line to shoot two free throws. After Ezeagu missed the first free throw, Drew called time out. Out of that, Ezeagu missed the second. GCU rebounded and the Lopes won 78-75.

Bryce Drew deflects credit. He points to the players meeting on their own before playing at Southern Utah on the last night of February. The next night, they rolled through Southern Utah and then Utah Tech a couple of days later, kick-starting this drive to the WAC title by winning four games without a bye.

"They took a lot of ownership," Drew said. "And it's been awesome as a coach to kind of sit back and let it be a player-led team. And they're leading themselves right now."

But those observing from the seats have seen Bryce Drew press all of the right buttons to carve this path to the national tournament.

It helps to shoot better than 50% in every game since the six-game winning streak started. But the Lopes needed Drew to adjust his defense from time to time, going from man-to-man to zone to a rare triangle-and-two in the second half that stemmed the tide against Sam Houston and allowed the Lopes to make their final surge to pull off the upset.

"At the dance for the second time in three years, it's a great tribute to Bryce," said Jerry Colangelo, the former Suns owner who has been alongside GCU President Brian Mueller in the moves the school's made since becoming Division I. "He was outstanding in terms of his coaching. He didn't miss a trick. In other words, he was on top of it. Every move he made, it was perfect. And I told him that."

Drew could come out of this season as a hot coaching commodity, but he's found his happy place in the Christian environment of GCU with the leadership and vision of Mueller, Colangelo and Athletic Director Jamie Boggs. The dream is to build GCU into a monster mid-major basketball program patterned after the likes of Gonzaga.

When it was announced during Sunday's Selection Show gathering at GCU Arena that the Lopes would be heading to Denver to play Gonzaga, players, who had pieces of the WAC Tournament title net tied to their championship hats, got out of their seats to celebrate. Drew took a microphone and told the fans, "I'm glad you're here."

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"This is so special," Drew told the crowd. "This is the first time we've been able to do an NCAA pairing inside of our arena with all of our Havocs here, cheerleaders, the band, everybody. Thank you guys for being here to celebrate with us today.

"We're so proud of the guys in front of you. There are so many words I could use to describe them. Tough. Resilient. Together. Family. Faith. There are so many things that they represent, that our school represents."

Homer Drew, on hand at GCU Arena, said he's happy to follow both his sons' teams in Denver. In years past, Homer would be scattered, trying to see his sons coach. Scott Drew led Baylor to the national championship in 2021, the year Bryce took over at GCU. The first two rounds of the West and South regions are in Denver. Baylor is the No. 3 seed in the South, opening Friday against UC Santa Clara.

"It's really special I get to be at one spot for both boys," Homer said.

Dana Shaw, Drew's sister, a former college point guard great, is happy for his parents, mainly because the brothers aren't facing each other in the first round.

Dana joked that Scott threw his weight on the selection committee not to pair them up, saying, "You're going to give my mom and dad a heart attack if you put us together."

Homer said Bryce was a coach on the floor when he played point guard at Valpo for him.

"He made my job very easy," Homer said. "He made the plays when we needed them. He made great decisions with the ball. But he's a good teacher."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: GCU basketball coach Bryce Drew finds method to maddening season