Homer Drew’s coaching path: From Lee’s Summit High to college basketball Hall of Fame
Lee’s Summit High basketball coach Homer Drew opened his office door on a Monday morning after a tough Friday night loss to find a maintenance man eager to chat.
Scrawling a play on some tissue, the fellow told Drew, “If you’d have run this play, we could have won on Friday night,” Drew recalled.
Drew didn’t mind the advice. Those Lee’s Summit teams of the early 1970s helped build the career and character of Drew, 75, who went on to win 640 college basketball games, including 371 in 22 seasons at Valparaiso. That stop included seven NCAA Tournament appearances and a 1998 Sweet 16 run punctuated by a last-second 23-footer from son Bryce Drew to upset Mississippi.
Sunday afternoon, Homer and Bryce Drew were back in Kansas City. Dad, a cancer survivor, was enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame at the College Basketball Experience.
On Monday and Tuesday, Bryce will be calling games for ESPNU at the Hall of Fame Classic at Sprint Center. Oldest son Scott wanted to make it this weekend but couldn’t — he was coaching Baylor in the championship game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational.
Homer Drew was one of three coaches enshrined during the Sunday’s ceremony, and he had connections to the other two: the late Rick Majerus and Lute Olson.
Majerus used to pull Drew into pickup three-on-three games with team managers when Majerus was at Ball State. “You talk about his love for basketball,” Drew said of Majerus. “He says, ‘I need you on my team, and we’re not losing.’”
In 1996, Arizona was the opponent in Valpo’s first NCAA Tournament appearance. Olson’s Wildcats weren’t a great shooting team, so Drew’s plan was to pack the paint. Arizona came out scorching from three-point range and Drew called two timeouts before the first media timeout.
“If you want to know the final score (90-51),” Drew said, “Google it, because I’m not telling you.”
After the game, which Arizona won 90-51, Olson’s wife, Bobbi, offered consolation, assuring Drew his hard-working team would return. And return Valpo did, for each of the next five years.
Players inducted Sunday included former national players of the year Shane Battier of Duke (2001), Indiana’s Calbert Cheaney (1993) and UNLV’s Larry Johnson (1991), along with Purdue’s Terry Dischinger, Ernie DiGregorio and Stanford’s Todd Lichti.
“It’s humbling,” said Battier, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2001 Final Four when the Blue Devils captured the NCAA title. “It’s a team award. I was super fortunate to be part of some amazing teams in my four years at Duke. We had an absolute juggernaut.”
This story was originally published November 24, 2019 at 4:28 PM.