Friends men’s team has Toby Baxter to build around

Fishing for compliments has never been Toby Baxter’s style.

So when the Friends junior guard began lighting up the scoreboard last season in pretty epic fashion, he didn’t expect much, if any, praise from coach Dale Faber.

Still doesn’t.

“I don’t think that’s really how (Faber) does things,” Baxter said, laughing. “And that’s fine with me. I don’t need constant praise. I want to be the best player I can be, regardless.”

Faber’s approach to coaching guards – call it tough love – is hard to argue against, and Baxter is the latest example that it works.

After a program-best Elite Eight finish at the NAIA Division II Tournament in 2013-14 and the exit of guard Joe Mitchell, the national player of the year, last season was supposed to be all about rebuilding.

Baxter just had other plans.

Not on anyone’s radar headed into the season, the 6-foot-2 Kapaun Mount Carmel product led Friends with 17.2 points, 1.2 steals and was second on the team with 4.2 rebounds.

Friends ended the season with a surprise run to the NAIA Division II Tournament as Baxter led the Falcons to the KCAC Tournament championship and was at his best against Tabor in the tournament semifinals, scoring a season-high 35 points in an 89-79 win.

“We knew Toby was pretty good as a freshman, he just didn’t get to play a lot because he was playing behind Joe and some other older guards,” Friends point guard Brett Williams said. “I don’t think anyone really expected what was going to happen last year, but I don’t think any of us were too surprised with how he played.”

And while Faber may not praise Baxter to his face, he’s quick to reel off his accomplishments to whoever might ask.

“With Toby, it’s what are we going to do in the next few hours that continually set us apart from everyone else?” Faber said. “He’s a unanimous All-KCAC pick as a sophomore after getting hardly any time as a freshman, and I can tell you that I was pleasantly surprised with how he did last year.

“And, as I inform him daily, I’d like to be pleasantly surprised by how much he improves this year.”

Look a little closer at Baxter’s background and his success becomes a little less difficult to discern — mainly because of who he spends his offseason playing against.

Baxter’s best friend is Wichita State guard Conner Frankamp and the two have played “countless” games of 1-on-1, Baxter said, with mostly similar results.

“You don’t get very many wins against (Frankamp),” Baxter said. “I’ve beaten him a few times, I think, but not very much. He’s just really, really good.”

And there was Baxter, an hour before practice started several weeks ago, going through drills with Mitchell and Williams, his roommate.

“You always know Toby’s going to do the work, plus some,” Williams said. “Whatever he needs to do in order to get better, he’s going to do it. He really hit the weight room in the offseason to get stronger, he really spent a lot of time in the gym working on his game.”

And now he’ll have to deal with being the focus for other teams the entire season, something Faber has harped on and Baxter is well aware of — and he did pack on about 10 pounds of muscle in the offseason.

“There’s not going to be any sneaking up on anyone this season,” Faber said. “So let’s see how Toby does when he walks in the gym and everybody knows he’s the guy they have to stop.”

Baxter, of course, put a different spin on it.

“To me, it’s about what we do as a team this season,” Baxter said. “I don’t think it’s a situation where a team can just focus on me and then stop our team. We’ve got a lot more than me, and it’s going to be how our team plays together that determines whether we win or lose games.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 6:15 AM with the headline "Friends men’s team has Toby Baxter to build around."