Baylor Basketball: Preview of Bears 2020-21 roster and depth chart

Forwards for Baylor Basketball

This is the only position where the Bears are losing a starter. Freddie Gillespie was becoming a household name heading into March and had one of the best stories in all of college basketball going from walk-on to starting on the #1 ranked team in the country. He played 70% of the time for the Bears.

While this will be a significant gap Scott Drew needs to fill I don’t think people realize that he himself was a fill-in. No disrespect to Freddie as he was one of my favorite players to watch in the whole sport, but Tristan Clark was a starter for the Bears back in 2018 and was leading the nation in FG% at 73.7 before a knee injury took him out for the season.

Clark never looked fully recovered last season. He sat out full games and played very limited minutes on averaging 13 per game. If he returns to form and is one of the premier forwards in the country like we saw for weeks in 2018, the Bears could be even more dangerous than they were last year. If that’s possible. I would look for him to take that spot back as one of the leading scorers on the team if that knee can fully recover.

Another Forward, although listed as a Guard on ESPN in 6’9” Mathew Mayer. This kid isn’t afraid of anything! He would come off the bench and go on 6-8 point scoring sprees for the Bears by himself. He is an offensive weapon that could see a huge uptick in his 11 minutes per game last season.

If you like hustle and grit, you’ll love watching Mark Vital. He was a finalist in the Naismith DPOY award and will absolutely be on the hunt for that title along with a team Championship. He was the first questionable player to announce he would be returning for another season weeks before the deadline.

He is all-in on bringing both a Big 12 Title and a National Championship to Waco, and with his mental fortitude… I believe it. He played about 64% of the minutes at Baylor so I’d expect that to increase slightly into the 70’s.

Flo Thamba only played about nine minutes per game last year coming off the bench. I’d expect him to see a dramatic uptick as his ceiling may be higher than anyone’s on the team. He has raw athletic talent and length that isn’t really seen anywhere else on the roster.

Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua is another transfer that sat out last year. He played at UNLV and could be a rebounding machine for the Bears coming off the Bench. I think he’ll see a fair share of play in the rotation and I’d expect him to be a role player. Especially if the Cameroon native can tap into his High School dunk contest championship days.