When Baylor takes the floor to begin the 2025-26 college basketball season, its entire roster will look completely different. Every single player from last year’s team is onto the next thing. All 14.
The majority of them left through the transfer portal. Not one of them stayed.
Baylor, which won a college basketball national championship in 2021, lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-straight year at the end of March. Duke blew them out. It was a frustrating end to what was ultimately the least successful season in the past seven years. And yet, there was still some momentum on which to build if the players decided to run it back.
Head coach Scott Drew will not be able build on the momentum. His players did not come back. All 14 guys are gone. Next year’s roster is going to look completely different from top to bottom.
The transfer portal officially opened on March 24. More than 2,000 Division-I players have entered. That is approximately 35% of all of the players in college basketball.
Nine of those entries are from Waco. Nine Bears hit the portal, with starting center Josh Ojianwuna announcing his imminent departure on Tuesday. That includes Rob Wright III, who received a large amount of money to transfer to BYU. Four players exhausted their eligibility. One is going pro.
Nine plus four plus one is 14. All 14 guys are gone.
Safe to call this one the final update: https://t.co/hQQHfJuV7t pic.twitter.com/vgfXwGVFEd
— Locked On Baylor Bears (@lockedonbaylor) April 15, 2025
Drew has already replaced six players. Five-star recruit Tounde Yessoufou is the only incoming freshman. Five players have committed through the transfer portal. Nine spots left!
It seems like there is a succession plan in place at Baylor. However, there is no way Drew thought he would lose his entire team.
I would be very curious to know why this happened. Is there a lack of money in Waco?