By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
Having to replace his entire roster, Baylor men’s basketball coach Scott Drew couldn’t have drawn up a more ideal scenario than representing USA in the FISU World University Games that begin Friday in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany.
 
“The bonding you get, the time, the relationships, obviously, pay huge dividends through the season,” Drew said. “But the practice time has been great for us, just to get to know what the new guys are capable of and what areas we can help them improve. The difference between this and a foreign tour, playing for a gold medal, representing the USA, that’s something that anyone who has a U.S. passport always wants the opportunity to do, if they’re ever blessed to.”
 
Unlike previous foreign tours that Baylor has gone on, where the Bears only got 10 days of practice, Drew and the staff have had unlimited practices with the 14 new players that have been here this summer.
 
“I think on and off the court, we hang out a lot,” said 6-1 guard JJ White, a fifth-year transfer from Omaha who averaged 13.7 points and 4.0 assists last season to earn first-team All-Summit League honors. “Just building that chemistry early on, we got right into it – four-hour, three-hour practices as soon as we got here. Just having those practices, it made us have to come together to get through them. So, it’s been smooth.”
 
The only negative in representing USA, Drew said, is that the roster is limited to only American citizens. A trio of international players – Tounde Yessoufou (Benin), Juslin Bodo Bodo (Cameroon) and Ramon “Mayo” Soyoye (Nigeria) – will remain in Waco to work out with assistant coach Melvin Hunt.
 
Additionally, 6-7 Oregon State transfer Michael Rataj will play for his native Germany; and 6-8 freshman forward Maikcol Perez from Italy will join the team in Germany and practice but won’t be able to play in games.
 
“Up to this point, they’ve been able to practice and help get us ready,” Drew said. “We’ve gotten a chance to get used to playing with them, see their strengths, weaknesses. That’ll help us come season time. You wish for the games over there that you had an opportunity, though, for them to play, because that would really help us to know who can do what under the lights.”
 
Joining White on the all-American Baylor roster are transfer guards Cameron Carr (Tennessee), Dan Skillings Jr. (Cincinnati), Will Kuykendall (Arizona), Obi Agbim (Wyoming), Isaac Williams IV (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and James Goodis (Indiana); 6-9 senior transfer Caden Powell from Rice; 6-7 freshman guard/forward Andre Igoudala II; and freshman walk-on guard Drew Perry.
 
“We’re really all coming together, jelling together,” said Powell, a local standout who earned Super Centex honors at Midway High School, “and we’re a lot farther on from when we started, when we just got here and started practicing as a team, to where we are now.”
 
White and Powell both said the team is loaded with length and athleticism.
 
“I told somebody today, Cam Carr might be the most athletic player I’ve ever played with,” White said. “So, him, Skills (Dan Skillings), Obi (Agbim), Mikey (Rataj); he’s not going to be with us, but just having guys like that. Isaac (Williams), all these dudes, they’re playing at a high level. And it feels good to be around them.”
 
Particularly as a point guard, White said the World University Games is a perfect way to “get right into it, knowing that I can get used to these guys, see where they want the ball, where their spots are, when they want to roll, when they want the lob.”
 
“It’s a reset, it’s a restart and it’s a chance to really build what your culture is,” White said. “I feel like there’s a lot of guys on this team that care about the right things. And you have to have that if you want to make a run in the (NCAA) tournament. This trip is, honestly, perfect for a team like us, so we can build and get used to each other, know each other’s spots, things like that.”
 
As Drew said, it’s also a chance to represent the U.S. and hopefully play for a gold medal. Playing in Group B of the 16-team tournament, the Bears will face India at 1 p.m. CDT Saturday, Lativa at 10:30 a.m. Sunday and Romania at 10:30 a.m. Monday. Bracket play will lead to a championship game that’s scheduled for next Saturday.
 
“There’s definitely just the pride and wanting to win and be the best,” said Powell, who averaged 10.4 points and 7.2 rebounds last year at Rice after two seasons at Wyoming. “That’s just another motivator for us. And also, just being able to build that chemistry.”
 
While the Baylor team played Germany in a “friendly” on Thursday, it will be interesting if the Bears get matched against Rataj and the Germans in bracket play. A first-team all-conference pick and a Karl Malone Award top-10 honoree, Rataj averaged 16.9 points and 7.2 rebounds last season at Oregon State.
 
“We said that (Rataj) could score 40,” Drew said, “but they have to let us win.”
 
“It’s funny, because we got here, and sometimes I wasn’t on his team,” White said of Rataj. “He’d make a good move, and I’d get mad at him and be like, ‘I hate you.’ Going against him is going to be fun, but I’m still not going to like him. It’s annoying.”
 
All the Baylor games in the tournament will be streamed live, with the broadcasts available at BaylorRadio and video at FISU2025. “Voice of Bears” John Morris and Baylor Hall of Famer Pat Nunley will handle the play-by-play and analyst roles for the audio broadcasts.