Baylor men's basketball falls to TCU 69-63 in James Nnaji's debut

FORT WORTH, Texas (KXXV) — Baylor basketball begins conference play on the road against rival TCU.

There was special attention on this game — to see James Nnaji in action. The former NBA draft pick finished with five points, four rebounds and one assist.

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"To be honest, it was a game situation and feeling if he would have played eight minutes, he'd have played eight. I thought he did a great job with playing the 16 minutes that he did," head coach Scott Drew said.

Baylor adding James to the roster becomes the most talked about story in college sports. For the Bears, they have abide by NCAA rules.

"We'd like to get to a place where I think everybody isn't shocked about anything because everyone knows what is what," Drew said.

"I'm not going to point the finger at the NCAA because every time they've had rules, when the courts have overturned them, then there aren't rules," he said.

Schollmaier Arena was stacked with fans and the home crowd let their voice be heard on what they think of Baylor's player pickup.

"I don't notice crowd reactions...I talked to Scott — I said you're famous now, huh? When we talked at halftime, I said, I'm the only guy that stuck up for you. So you know, it is what it is. I mean, you know they're committed. They're gonna find ways over there — It's not against the rules and you got to spend money and that's what they did," TCU men's basketball head coach Jamie Dixon said.

Baylor head coach Scott Drew was asked if he anticipated the general reaction by college basketball.

"It was a little more than I thought," he said.

"James did nothing wrong. Baylor did nothing wrong. And, I know he's human and just making sure he doesn't feel that. And again, if James was an NBA player today, he would be in the NBA," Drew said.

The Bears schedule heats up as they return home on Wednesday, January 7 — hosting No. 3 Iowa State.

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