Mark Vital working toward freshman phenom status

Redshirts have been the cornerstone of Scott Drew’s teams and forward Mark Vital continues that trend, following in the footsteps of Jonathan Motley and other storied Bears.

It’s come at the cost of Nuni Omot seeing fewer minutes, though Drew said Omot has given great support to the transition to Vital. After Monday’s 76-60 win over Oklahoma State, Manu Lecomte agreed that Omot’s been more than supportive of Vital. That probably rings true more than before after seeing the results a fully confident Vital brings.

As a forward, he’s expected to score and grab rebounds but he has quickly evolved past the that typecast. His three points against the Pokes were minimal but he excelled at spreading the rock. With his team-leading eight assists, he was responsible for 20 points- more than a quarter of the total.

Lecomte said Vital is “sometimes really the point guard,” helping direct traffic and move the offense in tight spaces top open up the floor.

Averaging over 5 dishes over the past three games, Vital has led the Bears in assists in all three starts. That was previously a role only Lecomte and occasionally Jake Lindsey occupied. Working at this pace, Baylor may have found a replacement to Ish Wainright as the team’s forward-guard hybrid.

Of course, Wainright’s value went beyond his stat line. He was the emotional leader that could ignite rallies. But even as a freshman, Vital looks to play that part.

During the postgame conference Monday, Vital said he feels his greatest asset is the “energy” he brings to the team. He then quickly to pivot an answer about his impact on the team to the atmosphere the riotous bench and student section brought. All textbook Wainright qualities.

Without saying as much, Coach Drew agreed.

“He plays so hard. Eight assists, 10 rebounds,” Drew said. “[He] get a lot of 50-50 balls, does a lot of things that might not show up on the stat sheet but show up on the plus-minus.

“[He made] the game easier when they trapped and we were able to get some easy dunks and that gets everyone going.”

Piling on the praise, Lecomte praised Vital’s ability as a defender, laughing at how many of the team’s mistakes Vital’s cleaned up be it through steals, rebounds, or lack of foul trouble- in a career-high 35 minutes Monday, Vital had just one personal foul.

Without Lecomte’s hot hand against OSU, there may not be a win to discuss but Vital was crucial in stoking that fire. He said his philosophy with Lecomte is “everything is a make.” Keep feeding him and the score will climb, hopefully, sooner than later. Now that it’s been revealed Lecomte’s dealt with a shoulder injury the past three weeks and is feeling healthy again, that connection between him and Vital should be all the more crucial in the upcoming duels with Kansas and Oklahoma.

Perhaps what’s most intriguing about Vital though is his foresight on offense. The past four games his points to assist ratio have been 10:1, 8:3, 6:5, and 3:10. While it’s a blanket assessment of his selection, it does show his trend to either take the shot himself (and draw fouls) or pass it off.