Baylor basketball duo featured in latest ESPN mock draft
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The 2026 NBA draft is months away from happening but with the college basketball season diving into conference play and the NBA season nearing the trade deadline, mock drafts are becoming more relevant each passing day.
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Carr to the Hawks
The Baylor Bears have had a player drafted in the first round for the past five years and appear to be headed towards a sixth consecutive draft with a player going in the first round. Shooting guard Cameron Carr is projected to go to the Atlanta Hawks at the #21 pick, according to ESPN’s draft analyst Jeremy Woo.
The redshirt sophomore from Eden Prairie, Minnesota is averaging 20.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists through the first 16 games of the season. Carr is in his first season with Baylor after spending the past seasons at Tennessee as a bench player.
Yessoufou to LA
Carr is not the only Bear garnering first-round attention in Waco. Freshman small forward Tounde Yessoufou is predicted to land with the LA Lakers at pick #22. Yessoufou, a native of Cotonou, Benin, played his high school ball at the prestigious St. Joseph High School in California and is averaging 17.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists. Yessoufou bounced back from recent struggles to score 23 points versus Oklahoma State on Tuesday night.
Baylor is one of six schools with multiple players in this mock draft going in the first round as they join Duke, UConn, Michigan, Houston and Arizona. Kansas guard Darryn Peterson is projected as the #1 pick to the Indiana Pacers and is followed by BYU forward AJ Dybantsa to the Sacramento Kings, Duke forward Cameron Boozer (Hawks), North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson (Wizards) and Houston guard Kingston Flemings (Jazz).
Carr and Yessoufou are two of nine players from the Big 12 conference projected to go in the first 30 picks and the Baylor duo will get an opportunity to face the other seven head-to-head in conference play over the next two months.
Carr, Yessoufou and the Bears (11-5, 1-3 in Big 12) bounced back from a three-game losing streak to beat Oklahoma State 94-79 and will travel to Kansas (12-5, 2-2 in Big 12) on Friday night. The Jayhawks knocked off previously undefeated Iowa State on Tuesday night.
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Allen began covering college sports as an intern for InsidetheGators.com for the Florida Gators 2021 football season. He has been a freelance sportswriter for the past four years at newspapers such as the Ocala Gazette, Ocala Star-Banner and GatorBait Media. As a lifelong sports fan, Allen's dream is to cover sports every day.