Creighton guard Baylor Scheierman brings versatility, showmanship to March Madness
Credit to Author: Elizabeth Merrill| Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:24:20 EST
Baylor Scheierman gets Creighton going early as he knocks down the long 3-pointer. (0:19)
OMAHA, Neb. — Baylor Scheierman is having the season of his life, but he cannot escape one lingering question: What happened to the headband? Many brave basketball players have test-marketed the accessory, with mixed — mostly negative — results, but for the Creighton guard, the headband did more than just corral his tousled hair.
It represented his penchant for flair and fun. There are at least two social media accounts devoted to Scheierman’s headband, and in its heyday, it started a sort of movement. True story: There’s a kid from Montana who happened upon a Creighton game on TV one night in 2022, saw Scheierman with his headband and became such a devoted Bluejays fan that he convinced his dad to take a 1,000-plus-mile pilgrimage to Omaha to see him play. Twice. And Jackson Newcomer, that Montana boy who’s 9 now, is a little bummed that his hero isn’t wearing a headband anymore.
Scheierman owned at least 30 sweatbands — blue, white and even pink, pulling them all off. And then they were gone. It happened after Creighton’s crushing 57-56 loss to San Diego State last March in the regional finals of the men’s NCAA tournament, a game that denied the program its first Final Four. Scheierman decided to return to Creighton for his fifth college basketball season, got a haircut and ditched the look.
“I don’t know what happened,” Francisco Farabello, Scheierman’s backcourt mate, said. “I asked him. He’s like, ‘No, I’m not going to wear it this year.'”
Scheierman said it’s “100 percent gone.”
“I’m not bringing it back out,” he said.
The lack of headgear has done nothing to tamp down his joy for basketball. He is still shooting 3-pointers from ridiculous places, feet often unset, and still blowing kisses to the crowd when he drills those shots.
The first half of Thursday night’s Big East quarterfinals game against Providence provided a glimpse of that versatility and showmanship. Scheierman made a driving layup, grabbed a defensive rebound, then pulled up far beyond the top of the key, swishing a 3-pointer. After the shot, Scheierman winked at Fox play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson.
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The Bluejays lost the game 78-73, but still secured a No. 3 seed in the Midwest regional and will play No. 14-seeded Akron on Thursday. It’s the highest seed ever for a team that Scheierman has played on in a journey that took him from mid-major basketball to the Big East to, possibly, the NBA draft.
But back to the wink. After his 3, the Fox broadcast showed a quick, previous shot of Scheierman flexing his muscles. He earned that flex with an offseason laboring in the weight room, but it’s still sort of a cringey moment for his parents. They’re Midwesterners, ingrained with a head-down, no-strut mentality, but they know that Scheierman’s style fuels his substance.
It’s all part of the Baylor Scheierman show.
“Basketball is meant to be fun,” he said, “and I try to enjoy it and get the crowd involved. I think that’s just what it’s all about, really.
“There’s a lot of people that tell me that if I’m on your team, you like me. If I’m not on your team, you probably hate me. That’s just how I play.”
VALENTINE’S DAY WAS always family night, and in 2003, Shannon and Scott Scheierman popped in a VHS tape while the children gathered around the television. Living on a farm outside of Sutton, Nebraska, they did not watch much TV. The couple had three children under the age of 6 and opted for something wholesome. So they watched “The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend,” a bio of basketball star Pete Maravich.
Baylor, who was 2½ years old, was so transfixed by the movie that he picked up a ball and started shooting it into two Fisher Price hoops in the living room. He watched it again with his sisters the next day and tried to imitate Pistol Pete’s moves.
“Baylor was just so drawn to it,” Shannon said. “It was just like his calling right from the beginning. That movie was what started it all, and then he just continued to watch and grow.”
Maravich, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer who was known for his showmanship and creativity on offense, had an undetected heart defect and died during a pickup game in 1988 — more than a decade before Scheierman was born. But Scheierman identified with Maravich, was drawn to his tall, skinny frame, mop-top hair and floppy wool socks. He was awed by Maravich’s love of the game.
There would be other sports in Scheierman’s future that captured his heart — he grew up in a football state an hour away from the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium in Lincoln — and Scheierman would cut out pages from playbooks, slap them on a wristband and run around the yard with his little brother Booker. They’d hold mock news conferences afterward.
Scheierman was so good at football that he broke Scott Frost’s state record for total yards in a single season. (Frost later offered him a chance to walk on to play football at Nebraska). He led Aurora to an undefeated season, and in the 2018 state championship game, his team throttled its opponent so bad that the game was shortened by the 35-second running clock early in the second half.
He threw 59 touchdown passes and could have piled up a whole lot more, Aurora football coach Kyle Peterson said, if he hadn’t taken a seat in the second half of several blowouts. But a college football career for Scheierman was never meant to be.
“Basketball has always been his passion,” Peterson said. “Football was kind of what he did with his buddies.”
When Peterson watches him play at Creighton, he sees flashes of Scheierman’s old football days: His unique grasp of spacing and where people are going to be, his ability to see it before almost anyone else does.
Shannon and Scott Scheierman met at Hastings College, an NAIA school which notably is the alma mater of former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne. Scott played basketball at Hastings, and Shannon was on the volleyball team. So far, they’ve raised three college athletes: Jasa played volleyball at Colorado Christian, and another daughter, Masa, is an outside hitter at South Dakota State. Booker plays quarterback at Aurora High. He stands 6-foot-8 as a junior, and should have many opportunities to play college football, Peterson said.
Baylor’s high school recruitment was less than glamorous, with South Dakota State the only Division I team to offer a scholarship. He committed to the Jackrabbits his junior year.
As a freshman at SDSU, Scheierman was the first man off the bench, played in all 32 games and had a solid but not spectacular season. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Scheierman went home to Nebraska with nothing much to do but ride his bike to the community youth center and play basketball on an outdoor hoop with Booker. Scheierman grew his hair out, and when he played basketball, his hair kept getting into his eyes and he needed something to control it. A headband that he borrowed from his younger sister.
ERIC HENDERSON KNEW, from the first time he watched Scheierman in AAU ball, that he wanted to coach him some day. Henderson, the head coach at South Dakota State, was familiar with Aurora because his wife Alicia grew up in York, Nebraska, just a half hour east on Interstate 80. To Henderson, Scheierman’s personality stood out instantly.
“Some people, it looks like it’s just painful,” Henderson said, “and they’re working hard, they’re playing hard, but maybe they don’t celebrate big plays, or their teammates. Not that they don’t care about them, but Baylor, when he plays, he just celebrates others around him in a special way. And it just creates a confidence in other people, and it makes it fun and enjoyable for everybody.”
During winters in Brookings, South Dakota State basketball is the only show, and Scheierman was the main act. He led his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals his sophomore year, and followed it up the next season with Summit League Player of the Year honors. He became a celebrity in the community of 23,000. Jackrabbits fans were “infatuated” with Scheierman’s play, Henderson said, because of his flashy passes and deep 3s, but also his unselfishness.
In the spring of 2022, Scheierman decided to declare for the NBA draft while keeping his college eligibility. Shortly after that, he entered the transfer portal. This time, everyone wanted Scheierman — Duke, Kentucky, and Kansas. Nebraska and Creighton too.
Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska and home of Creighton University, hugs the eastern border of the state. A mile or two outside of the city, and in pretty much every square foot north, south and west, is Nebraska Cornhusker territory. In different circumstances, Shannon Scheierman said, Baylor would have loved to play for the Cornhuskers and coach Fred Hoiberg. But Nebraska was coming off a 10-22 season, hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2014 and was the only power conference school to never win a men’s NCAA tournament game.
“[Kansas coach] Bill Self said that if you want to be looked at [by NBA scouts], if you want to move up in your position or clout as a basketball player, you need to go and come from a winning program,” Scott Scheierman said. “Nebraska has got the facilities, and we appreciated Coach Hoiberg and his presentation. … The program wasn’t established. Let’s put it that way.”
Scheierman wanted to stay close to home and had developed a good relationship with Creighton coach Greg McDermott, whose program was coming off another NCAA tournament appearance in 2022. Scheierman picked the Bluejays that May, leaving Husker fans fuming and McDermott in an enviable, albeit odd, spot. He had coached Henderson at Wayne State (Neb.) College in the 1990s, and the two men were such good friends that McDermott and his wife are godparents to Henderson’s oldest son Kooper.
“There was a little uneasiness probably right away,” Henderson said. “But at the end of the day, with the kind of the atmosphere of where college basketball is at right now, it goes away pretty quick to be honest with you. It’s part of the deal.
“Baylor was going to leave, whether it would be Duke or Kansas or Creighton. He wasn’t going to be at South Dakota State. You love and care about him, so you want the best for him. Not that it was easy. I’m not saying that. … There were some hard feelings inside, but when you peel it back and look at it in its entirety, I’m just really happy that he plays for a guy that I trust and respect so much.”
McDermott, by the way, is still the godfather.
“Kooper doubled up on his [Christmas gifts] that year,” Henderson said, laughing.
ASK SCHEIERMAN WHY he wasn’t heavily recruited coming out of high school, and he’ll tell you to ask McDermott.
McDermott said Scheierman, who was 5-foot-8 his freshman year at Aurora and weighed about 100 pounds, was too skinny. He didn’t shoot very well, either, McDermott said, and he credits Henderson for helping shape a 6-foot-7, 205-pound All-America candidate whom McDermott says has meant “everything” to the Bluejays’ 23-9 season.
“He does so much more than score,” McDermott said. “He’s one of the best rebounding guards I’ve ever coached. Some guys go through that NBA process and are able to capture exactly what they have to do to take the next step, and he went through it two years ago.
“Last year, he decided not to [leave] because he wanted to stay here and work on his game, and the results speak for themselves. He’s having one of the best years of anybody in college basketball, and his fingerprints are all over our success.”
Two years ago, he joined a Creighton lineup that was pretty much intact from the previous season, and at times, McDermott said, he tried too hard to fit in. He was almost unselfish to a fault. But as the season wore on, he became more comfortable, and his teammates gained confidence in him.
The Bluejays were on the precipice of making history March 26, 2023, when Scheierman hit a layup, tying the game against San Diego State at 56 with 32 seconds to play in the Elite Eight. With 1.2 seconds to go, Aztecs guard Darrion Trammell put up a floater as Ryan Nembhard‘s hand made contact with his hip. Nembhard was whistled for a foul, and Trammell hit one of the free throws. Scheierman tried to launch a rocket pass from under the Aztec’s basket, but the ball was knocked away, and the Bluejays were sent home.
Nembhard wound up transferring to Gonzaga in the offseason, and another starter — Arthur Kaluma — went to Kansas State. But Scheierman, Trey Alexander and Ryan Kalkbrenner came back for one more attempt to get where they were in 2023 and produce a different outcome.
Scheierman and Farabello took roughly 300 3-point shots each day in the offseason, but a few months before that, Scheierman sat his roommate down and turned on “The Pistol” movie. It was a distracting watch, with Scheierman reciting many of the lines.
“God knows how many times he’s watched,” Farabello said. “I was like, ‘You’re obsessed. You’ve got to stop.'”
Scheierman has seen the movie more than 100 times.
He’s put up gaudy numbers this season, averaging 18.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. He became the first Division I men’s player ever to record 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 500 assists and 300 3-pointers. But Farabello said that Scheierman doesn’t look at his stats.
“There were some rumors of him kind of being an a–hole before he came to Creighton,” Farabello said. “But then once you get to know him, the dude is humble, selfless. He wants the best of everybody. He wants the best for his team.”
Farabello, who’s from Argentina, has been to Aurora on a Friday night to watch a football game and says half the town was in the stadium that night. He made Shannon Scheierman cry once when he told her he gets to go home and see his mom only once a year. So the Scheiermans included Farabello in their Christmas celebration in Omaha last year, sharing dinner, knowing exactly what a college student wants for a present: Chipotle gift cards.
“I don’t even consider [Scheierman] my roommate of friend anymore,” Farabello said. “He’s actually my brother.”
CREIGHTON, A PRIVATE Jesuit school, hasn’t had a football team since World War II, so naturally many of its alumni and fans cheer for the Cornhusker football team on fall Saturdays. But there’s a faction of Nebraska fans who view this doubling up with great derision and coined a name for these people: Jayskers.
These intensely loyal “Nebrasketball” fans believe that you cannot root for one team in a sport, then switch allegiance during basketball season. Scheierman isn’t doing much to smooth things over. In December, he erupted for 20 first-half points — including six 3-pointers — in the Bluejays’ 89-60 rout of Nebraska in Lincoln. He blew a kiss to the crowd after one of those 3s.
Scheierman was somewhat of a fixture at Nebraska volleyball matches this past season because he’s dating Ally Batenhorst, who played three seasons for the Cornhuskers before deciding this winter to transfer to USC. Oh, and he’s an unabashed Nebraska football fan. A Jaysker.
Scheierman said he doesn’t care what they call him. He’ll root for whoever he wants. Four months after that CU-NU game, both Creighton and Nebraska are in the NCAA tournament. It’s the Cornhuskers’ first appearance in a decade, and they face Texas A&M on Friday.
“There’s a lot of successful people in Omaha, and they’ve been Nebraska football fans their entire lives,” McDermott said, “and most of them have been Creighton basketball fans their entire life. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. It doesn’t bother me if they wear red and go to Nebraska football games.
“I like to see Nebraska football do OK myself.”
JACKSON NEWCOMER CAME upon Creighton basketball one winter night in 2022 when his dad was watching TV. The Bluejays were playing Arkansas in Maui, Scheierman was hitting 3s and spreading love and Jackson asked his dad, “Who’s the guy with the headband?”
Andrew Newcomer didn’t know that night would lead to two years of intense fandom for a random team in Nebraska, and a player who, like Jackson, is from the middle of nowhere.
Jackson has now watched “The Pistol” too, and it’s become one of his favorite movies. He wore a Scheierman jersey and a headband when he competed in the Elks Hoop Shoot state championship last month. Jackson hit 24 of 25 free throws to qualify for nationals, and when his dad posted news of it on X, formerly known as Twitter, Scheierman replied. “Congrats, Jackson.”
Andrew said Scheierman is a role model because his energy and enthusiasm transcend time zones, because last year when the family made a trek to Omaha, Scheierman stopped to talk to Jackson, and did something they might not have known was possible. He made a boy love basketball even more.