Since winning a national championship in 2021, Scott Drew has yet to lead Baylor back past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. With four straight second-round exits, the Bears are trending in the wrong direction and now an unexpected offseason departure could throw a wrench in Drew’s plans for the 2025-26 campaign.
Despite managing a 20-15 record last season and a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Drew will have a lot of talent to replace in Waco, and his offseason got much more difficult with the news that 2024 four-star point guard Robert Wright is entering the transfer portal.
Baylor guard Robert Wright, an all-Big 12 honorable mention this season and a member of the league's all-freshman team, will enter the transfer portal, sources told ESPN. Wright averaged 11.5 PPG and 4.2 APG this season. The team had been under the impression that Wright had…
— Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) April 7, 2025
Robert Wright III departing Baylor basketball for transfer portal
As a freshman Wright averaged 11.5 points and 4.2 assists while shooting 41.4% from the field and 35.2% from three. The 6-foot-1 product of Wilmington, Delaware thrived alongside fellow freshman guard VJ Edgecombe, who is heading for the NBA after a one-and-done season with Baylor.
As ESPN’s Myron Medcalf reported, Wright was expected to return and Drew even passed on top point guards in the transfer portal, assuming he had the position filled for next season. Drew has added three players from the portal, power forward Michael Rataj from Oregon State, shooting guard Obi Agbim from Wyoming, and point guard JJ White from Omaha. White was an efficient scorer for the Mavericks, shooting 44% from three and Agbim was a volume scorer for the Cowboys, but Drew’s new-look backcourt doesn’t quite match the talent that just walked out the door in Waco.
Along with Wright and Edgecombe, Baylor will also need to replace do-it-all forward Norchad Omier, who transferred from Miami last offseason. At 6-foot-9 Rataj can match Omier’s scoring, but won’t replicate his physicality and defensive prowess.
Drew’s job is safe at Baylor. He won a national championship at a program that had just four total NCAA Tournament appearances before his arrival and after last year’s flirtation with Kentucky, it’s clear he isn’t going anywhere either. Still, Drew is looking to re-establish Baylor as a yearly championship contender, and losing Wright puts the Bears even further away from their 2021 glory.