Isaac Williams IV Staying in Waco: Baylor Guard Signs 2-Year Deal After Late-Season Surge

I love this. Isaac is the type of player I want to see us build around more.

With the improvement he made from last year to this year, the sky is the limit for this young man.

If he can improve on the defensive end next year, he could be one of the better point guards in the league. He was getting to the rim and scoring like a madman at the end of the season.

Does signing mean anything these days? I feel better hearing he "signed" but not naive enough to believe this prevents tampering and the ability to still take a better offer. I hope I'm wrong but the Kentucky receiver in football "signed" and then changed his mind.

This is huge! If we can retain one of Yessoufou or Carr then we are off to an awesome start for next season!

Smashmouth said:

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Does signing mean anything these days? I feel better hearing he "signed" but not naive enough to believe this prevents tampering and the ability to still take a better offer. I hope I'm wrong but the Kentucky receiver in football "signed" and then changed his mind.

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If nothing else, this proves that keeping him is a priority on our part and that Williams wants to stay. You don't commit for two years if a) you're looking to maximize short-term earnings and b) you're not invested where you are.

Things could always change, but I don't see any way this isn't a positive thing and news worth celebrating.

Jacques Strap said:

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I hope there is a buyout in all new player contracts.

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This should be standard by now. I'm very excited by this news. Maybe this is the start of a new model of roster building. Multi-year contracts.

Smashmouth said:

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Does signing mean anything these days? I feel better hearing he "signed" but not naive enough to believe this prevents tampering and the ability to still take a better offer. I hope I'm wrong but the Kentucky receiver in football "signed" and then changed his mind.

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Since we just recently got burned with Rob last season I'm guessing this contract is drawn up with more safeguards in place. That's just my guess though. I think with all of this NIL/portal stuff slowly evolving I would assume schools are figuring out ways to try and make this more secure. I hope so.

I take this as a very positive sign that this program wants to become competitive again.

The Return🐻💛 pic.twitter.com/6nbi9MHtaM

— Isaac Williams (@IsaacWilliamsIV) March 17, 2026

boognish_bear said:

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Isaac Williams signing with Baylor on a two year deal is massive for roster cohesion.

I don’t view him as a starter next year but he is a perfect 6th man type for a contending Baylor team.

Provides PG depth, good athleticism, and a strong developmental ceiling. #SicEm 🐻 pic.twitter.com/pDv4mQUeR1

— Grayson Grundhoefer (@GrayGrundhoefer) March 17, 2026

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I think this tweet is wildly underestimating Williams. If Williams isn't starting for us next year, our team will be absolutely LOADED and have an elite 8 caliber roster. Williams is one of the top pure athletes in the big 12 and will improve exponentially with a full offseason. Once he learns the nuances of the PG position and combines that with his raw athleticism he will be an all-conference quality player. Look at how our program developed our guards in the past. Hopefully we can replicate that player development program with Williams.

BearFan33 said:

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Jacques Strap said:

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I hope there is a buyout in all new player contracts.

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This should be standard by now. I'm very excited by this news. Maybe this is the start of a new model of roster building. Multi-year contracts.

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I'm not sure exactly how the case with the Washington QB worked out on this related issue, but a lot of the problem with buyouts is that they are tricky to enforce because it can be an indicator of an employment relationship between school and "student athlete." It's a farce anyway, but both players and schools alike do not want the relationship to be categorized as employer/employee because it opens up a lot of cans of worms at the state and federal level such as benefits, tax issues, at-will vs. contract,

These issues are so much more complex than a lot of people would like to think. And we are between a rock and a hard place because these are not issues that can be solved by armchair qb solutions, but the courts have rendered the NCAA completely toothless (which is the NCAA's fault because they let it get to this very predictable point by being greedy rather than giving some ground back in the 80's and 90's when a lot of this started to take root).

So really, only legislative action can fix many of these issues and we all know how good our legislative bodies are at being proactive, coming up with sensible solutions, and timely implementing those sensible solutions.

Halle - friggin - lujah!!!!!!!!

This is the momentum we need. It all started off negatively last year after season end. Now, we kept one of the main guys we needed to keep and hopefully we're off to the races. I don't expect Cam and Tounde to both return, but if we can get 1 of them, that would be awesome as well.

Now, stock next year's team with more guys who play with an edge, like Isaac did all year.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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boognish_bear said:

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Isaac Williams signing with Baylor on a two year deal is massive for roster cohesion.

I don’t view him as a starter next year but he is a perfect 6th man type for a contending Baylor team.

Provides PG depth, good athleticism, and a strong developmental ceiling. #SicEm 🐻 pic.twitter.com/pDv4mQUeR1

— Grayson Grundhoefer (@GrayGrundhoefer) March 17, 2026

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I think this tweet is wildly underestimating Williams. If Williams isn't starting for us next year, our team will be absolutely LOADED and have an elite 8 caliber roster. Williams is one of the top pure athletes in the big 12 and will improve exponentially with a full offseason. Once he learns the nuances of the PG position and combines that with his raw athleticism he will be an all-conference quality player. Look at how our program developed our guards in the past. Hopefully we can replicate that player development program with Williams.

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It also underestimates his work ethic. Williams went from being a player who couldn't make anything but a layup at Corpus Christi to a guy who made almost 50 percent of his 3s and almost 70 percent of his free throws this season for us.

The guy is clearly willing to put in the work to get better, and like you said, he's starting from a pretty damn good place athletically.

I'll be surprised if Williams isn't one of the guys we remember as being a vintage Scott Drew point guard before all is said and done.

BUBradley said:

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This is huge! If we can retain one of Yessoufou or Carr then we are off to an awesome start for next season!

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Very unlikely but I agree. It's the key to turning the corner. One of these two, with Williams, Perez, Bodo, Nnaji (maybe), the redshirts, and two to three high level transfers.

That would be viable to improve significantly. Don't think it happens but really need one of our top two guys to return.

He willed himself to become a decent shooter in a year. He couldn't consistently hit a jump shot last year. I imagine his improvement could be significant with a full offseason.

Quinton said:

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BUBradley said:

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This is huge! If we can retain one of Yessoufou or Carr then we are off to an awesome start for next season!

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Very unlikely but I agree. It's the key to turning the corner. One of these two, with Williams, Perez, Bodo, Nnaji (maybe), the redshirts, and two to three high level transfers.

That would be viable to improve significantly. Don't think it happens but really need one of our top two guys to return.

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If Yessoufou declares, then he really just wants to get to the NBA asap, because I've only seen one mock draft that has him going late in the first round. He might be able to maximize his rookie deal in a year with a weaker class. But that's just my wishful thinking.

I've seen Carr as high as 15 and as low as 28, but always in the first round.

canoso said:

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EvilTroyAndAbed said:

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Quinton said:

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BUBradley said:

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This is huge! If we can retain one of Yessoufou or Carr then we are off to an awesome start for next season!

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Very unlikely but I agree. It's the key to turning the corner. One of these two, with Williams, Perez, Bodo, Nnaji (maybe), the redshirts, and two to three high level transfers.

That would be viable to improve significantly. Don't think it happens but really need one of our top two guys to return.

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If Yessoufou declares, then he really just wants to get to the NBA asap, because I've only seen one mock draft that has him going late in the first round. He might be able to maximize his rookie deal in a year with a weaker class. But that's just my wishful thinking.

I've seen Carr as high as 15 and as low as 28, but always in the first round.

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Carr will do well in the draft. Yessoufou will too, eventually, but not this year. I wonder if CSD has ever asked other former Bears who entered the draft prematurely to share their experiences with other younger players.

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I hope Yessoufou understands that he doesn't have the skill set yet to succeed as a shooting guard in the NBA. If his ball-handling and perimeter shooting were issues in college (and they were), those weaknesses will be exposed that much more in the league.

He's got the tools, but he needs more seasoning. Hopefully he's getting good advice behind the scenes.