Alumni Gives His Take of What is Wrong with Baylor Basketball

The NCAA Tournament bracket is out, and the Baylor Bears, for the first time in nearly a decade are not involved in the festivities.

In a season to forget, the Bears finished nearly at the bottom of the Big 12 conference, while also bowing out in the first round of the conference tournament.

Despite standout seasons from Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou, it was clear that something was wrong with this Baylor team from the time the season began.

Their defense, a staple of the Scott Drew era, was not nearly as good. They did not gel quickly after having to replace their entire rotation for the 2026 season, and they really struggled at the point guard position.

Add it all together, and their disaster of a season makes more sense.

Now, the time has come to start working toward a better season to get back into the 2027 NCAA Tournament.

How are they going to do that? We’ve talked about a few ideas here, but Evan Miya joined 365 Sports to give some ideas on how to fix his alma mater.

Recruiting Issue?

“There are a lot of factors that go into Baylor’s down season,” Miya said

“There are some things out of their control, with players like Rob Wright who they hoping to to have back as part of their roster calculus that didn’t end up happening and ultimately they missed on a lot of guys they recruited from the mid-major ranks or guys that were underutilized from high majors. It never fully came together for them this season so I think the recruiting ultimately for me I never felt even in the preseason it lines up their roster was just not as talented on paper as the other Big 12 teams.

"I think that’s probably the main point of emphasis is to kind of refconfigure how they’re doing it there. I have a lot of confidence in any staff to figure it out. Scott Drew and Co won a national title in the last decade, but there are certainly some questions to be asked for sure.”

Baylor Bears guard Michael Rataj (12) drives to the basket around UCF Knights center John Bol — Mike Watters-Imagn Images

Miya is right about their recruiting outside of the program trying to bring guys in. Michael Rataj was one of the most disappointing players in college basketball this season, and he was supposed to be their prized addition.

Instead, he was benched, and largely an afterthought by the time the season ended.

In terms of talent, Miya is right about Baylor lacking some high end players to compete with the best teams in the Big 12.

Do they have a player comparable to Kansas’ Darryn Peterson? What about BYU’s AJ Dybantsa?

Anyone measure up to the top players from Arizona?

The answers are no, no, and emphatically no.

If you’re not going to have that kind of talent on the roster, the team needs to be a cohesive unit. Baylor was neither of those things, and that’s why they’re on the outside looking in for this year’s big dance.