No team will ever again have the same experience as our Natty team, due to NIL and the perfect storm of COVID allowing us to have those guys back another year.

Luckily our current team won't have to compete against our 2020-21 team, rather the current NCAA landscape. I like our chances.

Ja'Kobe and Missi also. One-and-done guys who are equally engaged on the defensive end.

My bad, I misspoke. We had those guys in the lab together all those months, building team chemistry. Those circumstances will never happen again.

Our natty team:
1. Tons of talent in all aspects of the game (ball hawks, 3 point shooting, defense, etc)
2. National DPoY
3. Lots of experience (2+ years at Baylor & transfers with experience elsewhere)
4. Best 3 point shooting team in the country: at one point, they were saying we had 5-6 players shooting 40% or better from 3
5. Incredible chemistry
6. Team cohesion enhanced by being in the bubble
7. Mark Vital: the man is special & was an amazing asset to the team.
8. What else? If we thought about it, we could several special traits to this list.

My point: they were special and it's a combination not likely to be repeated anywhere. Does this mean we won't get another natty? I hope not! I don't think so.

It's very possible: they could win another natty but that team was unique. We cannot expect to have that kind of team again.

IowaBear said:

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Yup OP does this yearly… every pre season team is better than one of the greatest CBB teams ever. It's nauseating. That 21 title team not being touched by any Bu or any team period for awhile

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True, but to be fair the 2022 team would have been the clear odds on favorite to win it all without the piling injuries. I think they would have won the title if even a few of Flag, Akinjo, Jon, and Brown were somewhat healthy. All those guys were playing at 70% or worse with Jon obviously being out. Not to mention losing Love who was looking great before the year even began.

But to your point the guy predicted the 22' team would challenge the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers team and Brown would go #1 in the draft.

That 2021 team was special, one of the very best college teams I have ever seen. Nothing we can say here, whether in praise or in comparisons that imply a less than exemplary judgment, is intended to detract in any way from the lustrous quality of that team.

But in a span of 75 years as a participant and an observer of college basketball, I have never, and I repeat that, never, seen a team demolish an opponent of the highest pedigree the way that that 2022 team did to Villanova. It was a jaw-dropping visual experience. Afterward, I listened to three respected analysts of college basketball who spent two thirds of their allotted time talking about Baylor. They were unanimous in predicting a second national championship, and went so far as to say, "It isn't even close." The day following, all of the national sports shows across the television spectrum were abuzz at what they had seen the night before, and once again the predictions of an end-of-the-year success for the Bears was unanimous.

We all know what happened, and it was not another national championship. It was a series of devastating injuries, starting with our point guard, a player predicted to be an All American and a potential candidate for Player of the Year in the December discussions of those topics, an injury he never fully recovered from. The loss of our rim protector was even more devastating, and then several others along the way. The team was still very good, but was just a pale reflection of what we had seen in the first few weeks of the season. We will never know how good that team would have been if not cursed by injuries throughout the season. Akinjo, Flagler, that great front line, as good as the team of the previous year had been defensively, this team had the potential to be even better at the defensive end, and more than capable offensively, with enough depth to play that crushing, switching man for man defense for a full forty minutes without a drop off.

Injuries and the NBA draft took too much off of that roster for last year's team to measure up to the high standard of the preceding three years, but I think that this current roster is suited to a deep run in the post season tournament if they get a break on the injury front. There is outstanding individual defensive talent on this squad, and extraordinary depth. The offensive capabilities are likely to improve as the players meld together in the preseason and hopefully begin the conference at full strength. I am bullish on this team.

We understandably recall to memory each year, now, the team which set the standard so high for all of its successors. I don't know if we will ever see a team quite like that again, as circumstances converged at just the right time to elevate the quality of their performances and show us the rarity of a team of veteran players, whose peculiar blend of talent and confidence was fine tuned by a coaching staff well suited to challenge and nurture them. It is difficult in the world of college sports to envision that combination coming of age and realizing its full potential in quite the same way the 2021 blend of Baylor basketball players and coaches managed to do.

We were, and are, fortunate to bear witness to that group, to whom we are forever indebted. They were truly golden.