The biggest surprise for the 2017 Bears was the breakout of Jo Lual-Acuil. The 7-foot junior college transfer earned All-Big 12 defensive honors. Without Lual-Acuil, the Bears don’t come close to achieving what they did in 2017.
With months until play resumes for Baylor football and basketball, we’re going to preview the 2017-2018 Baylor basketball team. We begin with Jo Lual-Acuil.
Baylor had the best defense of the Scott Drew era in 2017. The 2016 Bears finished 84th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency, while the 2017 unit finished 16th.
There are many reasons Baylor’s defense was better in 2016, but Lual-Acuil was a huge reason why.