When you bring up what Baylor Scheierman accomplished as a high school athlete, people gravitate to what he did on the football field. The star quarterback led Aurora High School to a Nebraska State Class C1 State Football championship in 2018. He threw for nearly 4,000 yards and a state record 59 touchdowns.
However, despite attending a high school residing less than two hours from Creighton University, his play on the hardwood hadn't put him on the program's radar.
"We did not watch him in high school," shared Steve Merfeld, the assistant to the head coach for the Creighton University men's basketball team. However, there was one exception, a singular instance that captured the traits sparking Scheierman's NBA evolution.
"Actually, my son played against him in high school," recalled Merfeld. "He just had a great feel for the game. And it just didn't matter what the score was, he just played the game right. And made the right play all the time. Yeah, that would be my first impression of him."
Scheierman honed those traits, along with the rest of his game, at South Dakota State. In his three years with the Jackrabbits, they won three Summit League regular-season titles. He helped propel them to a conference championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2021-22 campaign.
As he did so, Creighton kept an eye on his development. Two traits in particular signaled that it was time to bring him on board.
"It goes back to his elite feel, and the way that Creighton basketball is, we emphasize: play the game right, make the extra pass, crack down, all the fundamental things. He possessed those. And then the other thing was [that] his body had developed. I mean, it still needed some development, and I think he would tell you that once he got to Creighton, Jeremy Anderson, our strength and conditioning coach, had a major influence and emphasis on his development as well."
Baylor Scheierman blossoms on a bigger stage
In his two years with the Bluejays, the Nebraska native helped lead the program to the Elite Eight and then the Sweet Sixteen. In his final year at Creighton, he earned First-Team All-Big East and Third-Team All-American honors.
During that two-year tenure, the team's head coach, Greg McDermott, would rave to his son, Doug McDermott, one of the best to ever play for the program and a former first-round pick.
"My dad just couldn't stop raving about his feel for the game -- his IQ," shared the 11-year NBA veteran, who's now suiting up for the Sacramento Kings. "You can tell he played quarterback in high school. He just -- he knows how to play winning basketball, and he makes everyone better. He can really shoot the ball, but I think his biggest strength is just his IQ and knowing how to play. And you're starting to see that with the Celtics. He's getting a lot more opportunity, and he's thriving."
What Greg McDermott, Steve Merfeld, and the rest of the coaching staff at Creighton saw specifically was a burgeoning player pairing his feel for the game and his will to win with an improved physique that was enabling him to elevate as a defender.
"It just seemed like the game was in slow motion for him," said coach Merfeld. He just always made the right play. The one thing that I think really developed while he was at Creighton was his defense. In high school, you're the best player on the floor, blah blah blah. You go to South Dakota State, you start as a freshman, you're all-conference, this, that, and the other.
"And when we got him, he wasn't a bad defender, and I think that goes back to his IQ, but he became an elite defender. He really bought into that fact, and I think that's really helped him at the NBA level as well."
Baylor Scheierman's message from Doug McDermott
Before taking his talents to Creighton, Scheierman went through the NBA's predraft process. The feedback he got from the Celtics underscored the importance of continuing to work on his body before it was time to take his talents to the Association.
Doug McDermott, who spent considerable time with the Bluejays' next generation star during the summers, saw the work Scheierman put in as his body and game matured.
That motivated Boston to select him with the 30th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. Now that he had reached the highest level of basketball, McDermott's message to him was simple.
"Just keep shooting. I mean, he's a hell of a shooter," stated the 12th-year wing. "That's what he's known for, but he can also do a lot more things. So, just tell him to keep his confidence because he's on a really good team. Similar to my situation as a young guy, [who] was on the Bulls, making the playoffs. So, sometimes there's nights where you don't play a ton, but it doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong. You're still valued highly by this organization, and you just got to keep fighting."
Fortunately for Scheierman, perseverance is a defining characteristic of him and his life's journey.
He got drafted by a franchise that had just lifted the Larry O'Brien Trophy. They brought back 15 of the 17 players from their title team, including those on two-way deals.
In his rookie year, the six-foot-six wing appeared in 31 games, averaging 12.4 minutes. He bounced between Boston and Maine, spending time developing his craft in the G League. When his rookie campaign ended, he returned for a second stint with the Summer League Celtics.
McDermott, who got drafted to a Bulls team that won 50 games in his first NBA season, knows firsthand how challenging it is for a young player to grow under those conditions.
"It's really hard. It's really hard. I tell him, I told all the guys at Creighton that come into the league, it's a lot different than college, especially when you're on a good team," conveyed McDermott. "It's going to be a long year, because you're not going to play a ton. You might play in the G League, then you have to go straight to Summer League, and then get ready for another year. So, I think once you get through those first couple years, it becomes easier for you in terms of kind of knowing what this league's about and stuff that I've shared with Baylor, and he's obviously responded really well."
Baylor Scheierman's NBA ascent and the driving force behind it
It took Scheierman a lifetime of relentlessly chipping away to achieve his NBA dreams. He didn't take the elevator to the top. He climbed every step. It was as painstaking and gradual as it was rewarding.
Whether it was coming out of high school, when, as a nearby star, he wasn't on Creighton's radar, or while he was helping lead South Dakota State to the NCAA Tournament, one of only seven times they've done so, finally getting to play for the Bluejays, becoming one of the program's most distinguished alums, or pushing past a rookie year spent mostly on Boston's bench, his journey captures the competitive spirit that has fueled it.
"It goes back to his extreme confidence in his own abilities," said coach Merfeld. "Nothing seems to rattle him. There's obviously guys at the highest level in the NBA that can be rattled, but nothing will rattle him. He's almost like a quarterback that just makes the right play, the right read. He just makes that winning play every single time. Sure, he's gonna make some mistakes, I mean, that's part of it, but I think over the last year and a half, he has earned the coach's trust.
"They know what they're gonna get when Baylor is in the game at both ends of the floor. And I think that's really, really important for a player of his abilities that has all the superstars around him. They're not worried that he's gonna try to get 20 points, and go off and shoot crazy shots. He's gonna make the right play. He just totally understands -- he could [not] care less about the individual stats, and is nothing but, 'How are we gonna win this game?'"
For a player who takes the court with an edge and is aware of the trash talk that awaits him when he steps on the floor, that's merely another part of the game that he relishes; so much so that he doesn't just hear from the peanut gallery when he's shooting in front of the opposing bench.
When he lets a shot fly by Boston's bench, Celtics' trainer Drew Moore will do the same. It's fitting that it makes an individual who had to battle to reach the NBA in the way that Scheierman did, feel comfortable.
And while that shooting was his standout trait when he entered the Association, even as a rookie, Joe Mazzulla cared most about what he did on the defensive end.
Now, the work he has put into transforming his physique, combined with his IQ and feel for the game, and a gritty nature forged on football fields, and a will to win chiseled throughout his odds-defying journey, has led to Mazzulla and the Celtics' coaching staff having the utmost confidence in him on defense.
Thrown into the fire in his sophomore season, Scheierman is holding his own against assignments ranging from Kevin Durant and Tyrese Maxey to Cade Cunningham, Cooper Flagg, and opposing centers like Isaiah Stewart of the Detroit Pistons.
"To me, his growth is more about his defensive versatility," said Mazzulla after Boston's 104-103 loss in Detroit. "Sometimes, he'll guard the best player, sometimes he'll guard the big. So, I think his continued growth in our defensive physicality and system is kind of where he's made the most growth, to where you build a level of trust."
It's a development that those who were with him at Creighton, like coach Merfeld, saw coming as he consistently figured out how to take his game to a higher plateau.
"I think yes," responded coach Merfeld when asked if he envisioned Scheierman becoming the caliber of dynamic defender he has in the NBA. "The other thing that I will add to that is, he is an extremely confident young man in his abilities. He, from day one, felt like he totally belonged on the world champions' team, and [when] he came in, they [had] just won a championship. And he was patient. He knew that coach [Mazzulla] basically didn't play rookies. He went down to the G League, played with the Maine team, put up big numbers, was up and down, up and down, up and down, but it didn't bother him. Some individuals, it probably would. He just wanted to play basketball.
"And he would be the first one to tell you that, rather than sitting on the end of the bench and being the 12th man, sure, that's great in the NBA, but I would prefer to be playing. And he was able to do that by going back and forth."
Now, as Mazzulla put it after the Celtics' 112-93 win over the Kings, Scheierman has developed into a "utility guy for us defensively, where he can defend different matchups."
When asked about earning that label, one at the heart of his breakout campaign, the second-year wing responded, "I think I've tried to make the most of every opportunity that I've gotten, and with that comes more trust. I'm just out there trying to impact the game in whatever way necessary."
Baylor Scheierman's defensive evolution doesn't come as a surprise
It wasn't a surprise that someone who travelled the path that Scheierman went down, one defined by perseverance, responded to getting thrown in the fire the way he has.
That hasn't just led to more opportunities; it has fostered his growth by allowing him to become even more comfortable on the floor, regardless of whether he's guarding a future Hall of Famer, like Durant, or a rising star like Cunningham and Maxey.
"With more opportunity, you become more confident out there, more at ease and understanding of what we're trying to do defensively, and I think with every rep and the more minutes I get, the more comfortable I become," said Scheierman.
That also goes hand-in-hand with the area he believes he has made his most significant leap on defense.
"I think it's having an awareness to what's gonna get me on the floor," said Scheierman. "It's a credit to the coaching staff for getting me ready in the summer through Summer League, and through August, and then a credit to Matt Gould in the weight room for continuing to help me get my body right, and I think it's a bunch of people to credit and just a lot of hard work."
There's also another aspect of Scheierman's game that becomes even easier to appreciate with more playing time.
It's no surprise that someone with a football background doesn't hesitate to throw himself into the mix for a rebound. Scheierman's hustle enables him to extend possessions at one end of the floor. He has a knack for retrieving rebounds outside of his area at the other end.
"I think obviously his offensive rebounding, but rebounding outside of his area is a big one," noted Mazzulla after the Celtics' 111-89 loss to the New York Knicks. It was a game where Scheierman grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds. "Whether he's boxing the guy out or whether he's on the perimeter, he comes back and crashes defensively and gets those, and so that helps us get out in transition. But, you know, I think he's playing at a great level for us defensively, and, you know, really, on the rebounding piece, on both ends."
Scheierman's ability to contribute on the defensive glass is an area that earned him lofty praise from coach Merfeld.
"We had [seven-foot-one center] Ryan Kalkbrenner, who was one of the top big men in the league, but Ryan was a block-out guy. He was a guy that wasn't going to attack the ball when it came off the glass at the defensive end. And that goes back to Baylor's feel to be a great rebounder. He would just go get the ball wherever it was at all times. And that, again, his IQ is so -- it's so far above average that he just reads where the ball's gonna go. And we didn't have him offensive rebound as much as we probably should have because of that feel, but he was as good a defensive rebounder as I've ever been around," said Merfeld.
Merfeld's affinity for Scheierman is evident. He beams with pride when discussing him. He shared that the Creighton coaching staff does the same.
He also looks forward to welcoming him back over the All-Star break. It's a return to the roots that helped shape Scheierman, even when challenging the high school football star to raise his game on the hardwood to get there.