Baylor entered this season as one of three high-major programs with zero returning players, but coach Scott Drew was optimistic after seeing his squad compete in July at the FISU World University Games for Team USA.
One particular player who captured Drew’s attention was Tennessee transfer Cameron Carr, who joined the Bears last January as a walk-on after averaging 4.8 points in four games for the Vols before suffering a thumb injury. The 6-foot-5 redshirt sophomore finished as the second-leading scorer (18.2 points per game) in the World University Games, with a high of 26 points in the gold-medal loss to Brazil.
A four-star prep recruit out of Minnesota, Carr is the son of former Southern Illinois standout Chris Carr, who had a six-year NBA career that included a runner-up finish to Kobe Bryant in the 1997 Dunk Contest. “His dad played in the NBA, and Cam has that same type of athleticism,” Drew told Hoops HQ in August.
Carr has continued his stellar play for the Bears (3-0) as he ranks among the nation’s top-20 scorers at 23.7 points per game. He’s also shooting a sizzling 67.6 percent from the floor and 52.9 percent behind the arc. He started hot with a career-high 28 points in a season-opening win over UTRGV before adding 16 points in a win against Washington. Last Friday, Carr made his first four shots — including a pair of three-pointers — to score 10 points in the first seven minutes in a win over Tarleton State. He finished with 27 points on 10 of 13 shooting, including a 3 of 6 effort from deep, and served as a primary ball handler at times. That allowed Obi Agbim (14 points, 5 assists) to play more off the ball like he did last season at Wyoming.
According to The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, Carr is also climbing up NBA Draft boards as a possible first-round pick due to his long reach and ability to dribble, pass and shoot. “Honestly, I’ve got to really give thanks to the guys around me,” Carr said. “I feel like they trust in me a lot, and I feel like I’ve said this a million times: they have the utmost confidence in me, and I have the utmost confidence in them.”
Carr, who won a prep national championship at Missouri’s Link Academy, is grateful for the opportunity with Baylor after averaging 2.3 points in 18 games over two seasons at Tennessee. He had a high of 13 points in what was his second-to-last game with the Vols last season before leaving for Waco. “In high school, they said I wasn’t supposed to play anymore because I had a bad knee injury,” Carr said. “So it’s just a blessing anytime I get to step on the court with my guys and show what God’s given me.”
Several other newcomers have settled into key roles for Baylor, including five-star freshman Tounde Yessoufou. The 6-foot-5 wing from Benin is the team’s second-leading scorer (16.3 points), and his athleticism, physicality and two-way ability has him pegged as Baylor’s next likely one-and-done player with NBA Draft lottery potential.
There are three other double-digit scorers in ex-Cincinnati guard Dan Skillings (13.3 points), Agbim (10.7 points, 5.7 assists) and former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi guard Isaac Williams (10.0 points).
With former High Point big man Juslin Bodo Bodo still sidelined due to injury, the Bears have turned to a pair of senior transfers to man the paint in 6-foot-9 Michael Rataj (7.3 points, 5.0 rebounds) and 6-foot-10 Caden Powell (6.0 points, 5.0 rebounds) from Oregon State and Rice, respectfully.
Rataj earned first-team All-West Coast Conference recognition last season at Oregon State after averaging 16.9 points and 7.2 rebounds. Powell, Baylor’s first scholarship player from Waco in the Drew era, chipped in 10.4 points and 7.2 rebounds last season at Rice.
Bodo Bodo was the Big South Conference Defensive Player of the Year each of the past two seasons. The 6-foot-11 junior has yet to play for the Bears since suffering an offseason arm injury, and there is no timetable for his return.
Freshmen producing big for Houston
Through the first few weeks of the college basketball season, several first-year phenoms posted standout performances in what’s already been dubbed “The Year of the Freshman.”
Down in Texas, five-star freshmen Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac Jr. have started every game for Kelvin Sampson’s undefeated Houston squad, which recently moved up to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Their play prompted Sampson to bring them with him to the post-game press conference following UH’s recent win over Towson. “I brought these two freshmen in here because I wanted to tell them how proud I am of them,” Sampson said. “They’ve got tough jobs. They’re playing for a program that’s won more games than anyone in America in the last eight years, and all of a sudden they’re starting. That’s not easy to do.”
They’ve made some things look easy early on for the Cougars (4-0).
An explosive, 6-foot-5 playmaker from San Antonio, Flemings has developed into a versatile weapon starting alongside senior guards Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan. Flemings leads the Cougars in scoring (17.3 points), assists (5.3) and field-goal percentage (69.2 percent).
A 6-foot-11, 240-pound big man from New Orleans, Cenac has teamed up with junior forward JoJo Tugler to form one of the nation’s top frontcourts. Cenac is the team leader in rebounding (9.0 rebounds), with two double-digit performances, and is averaging 10.8 points. He has struggled at times offensively but is a projected lottery pick with his 7-foot-3 wingspan, 9-foot-1 standing reach and offensive/defensive upside.
Sampson has a simple message for his starting freshmen as the Cougars look to three-peat as Big 12 champions and win the first national title in program history after falling in last season’s title game.
“I tell them the same thing every day: keep working,” Sampson said. “Chris is a hard worker, but he’s also high character. Kingston is a hard worker, but he’s also high character. High-character kids handle adversity well because they’ve been brought up the right way, and I give credit for that to nobody on our staff but to their mothers and fathers.”
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Around the rim
*Kansas coach Bill Self had some grim injury news to share concerning his star freshman Darryn Peterson (21.5 points per game) after Saturday’s win over Princeton.
“We’re not obviously going to have him, you know, at least for the immediate future,” Self said. “I just don’t know how long that’ll be.”
Peterson, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft after being rated the top Class of 2025 recruit by 247Sports.com and On3.com, has missed KU’s last two games due to a hamstring injury. His status for Tuesday’s game against Duke remains unclear.
The 6-foot-6 guard has appeared in two games this season for the Jayhawks (3-1). After scoring 21 points in a season-opening win over Green Bay, he followed with 22 points in a Nov. 7 loss at North Carolina.
Self told reporters earlier last week that Peterson’s hamstring injury had been lingering for “weeks,” but that he had played through it.
*After opening the most-anticipated season in program history with three straight wins, BYU fell to UConn in a top-10 matchup Saturday in Boston’s TD Garden.
It was a bittersweet homecoming for AJ Dybantsa, who grew up outside Boston. The highly touted freshman and potential No. 1 in next summer’s NBA Draft finished with 25 points on 8 of 14 shooting.
The Cougars (3-1) turned it over 14 times and had just seven assists on 29 made baskets while playing without starting point guard Kennard Davis Jr., who has been suspended following his arrest last Thursday on suspicion of DUI following a crash in Provo, Utah. Davis started the first two games of the season before sitting out last Tuesday’s win over Delaware due to injury. In the season’s first three games, BYU had a combined 16 turnovers and 44 assists.
BYU also lost starting big man Keba Keita to a first-half injury against UConn, and his status moving forward is unclear. The 6-foot-8 senior had to be helped off the court with 8:51 left in the opening half after taking a hard hit to his head and shoulder area while fighting for a loose ball. He did not return and finished with two rebounds.
Games to watch
Kansas vs. Duke, Nov. 18 (ESPN)
Two college basketball bluebloods face off in the annual Champions Classic in Madison Square Garden. The likely absence of injured Kansas star guard Darryn Peterson will take some of the luster off this matchup, but Duke (4-0) has its own freshman superstar in forward Cameron Boozer. Without Peterson, the Jayhawks (3-1) must get a big game from big man Flory Bidunga and more out of Illinois transfer Tre White.
Arizona vs. UConn, Nov. 19 (FS1)
This is a matchup of undefeated, top-five teams in Storrs. Arizona (4-0) has wins over defending national champion Florida and UCLA, with freshman forward Koa Peat and senior guard Jaden Bradley leading the way. UConn (4-0) is fresh off an impressive win against a top-10 team in BYU and has a potent frontcourt led by Tarris Reed Jr. and Alex Karaban.
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