NCAA Basketball: Ranking of top 25 team backcourts for 2023-24 season

23. Baylor Bears

The Bears easily had one of the best scoring backcourts in the country, with all three starting guards (LJ Cryer, Keyonte George, and Adam Flagler) averaging at least 15.0 ppg. But all three are gone, along with Dale Bonner, who transferred out to Ohio State. Langston Love is the lone returning rotation guard, averaging 6.3 ppg as a freshman.

Baylor brought in a ton of new guards to replace the lost production. The biggest name is Rayj Dennis, a transfer from Toledo who was the MAC Player of the Year last season. He averaged 19.5 ppg and 5.8 rpg, shooting 48% from the field and 37% from deep. They also added Jayden Nunn, a former VCU guard who produced 9.3 ppg on 40% 3PT.

The Bears will need the freshmen guards to have an immediate impact. Miro Little is a four-star point guard from Finland who’ll compete with Dennis for minutes at the one-spot. And five-star shooting guard JaKobe Walter may have the highest ceiling on anyone on the team. He and Langston give the team plenty of size on the perimeter, which should help them bounce back from a poor defensive campaign.

It’s the first year in a while where there’s a lot of question marks in the Baylor backcourt. But Coach Scott Drew deserves a benefit of the doubt that he’ll make this work. If not, they’ll need the frontcourt to pick up the slack.