Standout Big 12 Freshman with Philadelphia Ties enters the Transfer Portal

Baylor Bears point guard Robert O. Wright III, who made the Big 12 Conference All-Freshman team this past season, is entering the transfer portal. The decision came as a huge surprise to Baylor, who was under the assumption Wright was going to be in Waco for the long haul and they would build the team around him. The top teams believed to be going after Wright are North Carolina, Duke, Florida, St. John's, and Villanova.

Rob Wright had a very good season at Baylor this year, averaging 11.5 points and 4.3 assists per game, shooting 42% from the field and 36% from deep. Wright attended Neumann Goretti Catholic High School in South Philadelphia for three years, then committed to Baylor and played his senior year at Montverde Academy in Florida. Wright’s departure from Baylor is said to be facilitated by his father and is fueled by money. This is just yet another example of the negative effects of the NIL era of college sports and Baylor basketball’s downturn.

Baylor won the National Championship in 2021. It was the pinnacle of head coach Scott Drew’s miraculous turnaround of a Baylor program that was in complete desolation when he took over in 2003. In the four seasons following the National Championship victory, Drew’s Bears have fallen in the Round of 32 every single year. Drew rebuilt the program through four-year players and the occasional infusion of a transfer, but ever since ‘21, Baylor has been getting top recruits. In turn, the players go one-and-done and Baylor’s success has dwindled. Wright, the 24th ranked recruit in his class, is just the latest installment.

Only this time, it came by surprise. When Baylor brought in number five ranked recruit VJ Edgecombe for this past season, they knew he would be going to the NBA after just a year. Same went for top 10 recruits Ja’Kobe Walter in 2023 and Keyonte George in 2022. Wright entering the transfer portal comes as a total surprise to Baylor, but there's a Philadelphia team that could stand to gain from this - Villanova.

Wright could be new head coach Kevin Willard’s first big splash addition to the Wildcats, as the rising sophomore point guard has been rumored to be interested in Nova. Willard had hoped to bring Ja’Kobi Gillespie - one of the top transfers in the nation - from Maryland to Villanova with him, but Gillespie chose Tennessee. Instead, Willard was able to get Maryland guard Malachi Palmer - a Harrisburg native - to transfer. He played just 8.4 minutes per game for the Terps last year and the addition of Wright would be an instant upgrade to the point guard position. Nova also lost senior guards Wooga Poplar, Jordan Longino, and Jhamir Brickus, so there’s a role to be filled.