NCAA Basketball: 7 players vital for their teams in 2018-19

CHARLOTTE, NC - MARCH 18: Sterling Manley #21 of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts against the Texas A&M Aggies during the second round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Spectrum Center on March 18, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

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LUBBOCK, TX – DECEMBER 29: Head coach Scott Drew of the Baylor Bears talks to his players at a time out during the game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders on December 29, 2017 at United Supermarket Arena in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Baylor 77-53. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

Mark Vital – Baylor

Baylor had a disappointing season in the Big 12 finishing just 8-10. For the Bears to have a bounce-back season by their standards sophomore forward Mark Vital could be key. Scott Drew’s Bears return two of their top seven scorers, and outside of Vital, return just 19.8 of the team’s 76 offensive output from last season.

The 6-5 native of Lake Charles, Louisiana originally committed to Baylor in 2013 even though he was a member of the class of 2016. He started high school Washington-Marion in Louisiana before transferring to the Advanced Preparatory in Texas for his final two seasons. He arrived at Baylor as the prototypical Bear forward, long, bouncy and through-the-roof athletic ability. He was rated a four-star recruit and at the time of his signing was the No. 1 recruit in Louisiana and a top-80 recruit nationally.

Vital spent his first season on campus as a redshirt which seemed to pay off because he saw significant minutes almost immediately and ultimately landed in the starting line up for a team that went eight players deep. The 230lb. swingman played in all but one of the team’s games during his first season and recorded double-figure points in nine contests. He also grabbed a career-high 11 boards in an upset win over Kansas in February. He finished his freshman year averaging 6.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists in just under 24 minutes of action and with senior guard King McClure the only player returning to average more minutes than Vital (23.9 to 23.8) all of those statistics should see a nice increase.

Vital is an efficient scorer when given the chance. He shot over 48% from the field last season despite attempting 10 or more shots only three times. With the top four shot takers from last season all gone, those opportunities should increase for him and if he can develop more of his perimeter game he will become even more of a weapon this season. If there was one flaw in Vital’s offensive game it comes at the free throw line. With his ability to get to the basket he is going to draw a lot of contact so he really needs to improve on the 50.5% he shot from the charity stripe last season.

Baylor will need to rebuild its roster a bit for 2018-19 but Vital is a piece that could breakout for the Bears.

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