Scott Drew on the Frontier of Replacing Talent

All season long, we’ve heard how Baylor lost four starters from their National Championship team and platitudes about how impressive it is to keep winning without them.

I’m here to quantify exactly how impressive this season has been.

What Baylor Lost

Davion Mitchell. Jared Butler. MaCio Teague. Mark Vital. An NBA lottery pick, a 2nd round NBA pick, a G-league starter, and an NFL tight end. 60% of Baylor’s minutes, 63% of points scored, 52% of rebounds collected, and 62% of steals/blocks.

Sure, other schools have to make up for lost talent, too. In fact, 49 other schools (14% of Division I teams) had to replace as large of a share of minutes, points, rebounds, and blocks/steals as Baylor in the…