Big 12 Basketball: Ranking of top 25 players entering 2023-24 season

18. Jalen Bridges – Baylor

Now a redshirt senior, Bridges has spent his entire career in the Big 12 and is ready for a second season with the Bears. He previously played a pair of seasons at West Virginia but is coming off his best year as a junior last season. Bridges averaged 10.3 points and 5.6 rebounds, with a career-best 51% field goal percentage while contributing to a team that made the second round of the Big Dance.

Baylor has higher aspirations this season and Bridges will play an even more significant role for the Bears. This team shed their three fantastic backcourt players from last year, meaning they’ll be leaning on Bridges’ talent and experience in the frontcourt even more. He’s the leading returning scorer and is a pretty athletic and versatile forward; we’ll have to see how the Bears use him this upcoming season while he hopes to regain some of his outside shooting touch.

17. Jesse Edwards – West Virginia

Though he was just a backup player as an underclassman, Edwards comes to West Virginia after four years of collegiate experience at Syracuse. He developed into a major weapon in the frontcourt for the Orange, but opted to depart after Jim Boeheim’s retirement. Edwards is coming off a season where he averaged 14.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, becoming one of the top rebounders in the ACC.

He’s hoping to flawlessly transition his game into the Big 12, albeit in a completely different system under interim head coach Josh Eilert. While Edwards isn’t a threat from outside the paint, he’s been working on improving his total game and could surprise in his final collegiate season. Every part of his game has improved over the last few seasons, we’ll just see how great of a defender he is now that he’s not playing that patented Syracuse zone defense.