![\"Jalen](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/mbb-nov23.jpg\")
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For the 11th time in the last 14 seasons, Baylor men’s basketball<\/a> will open the 2023-24 season ranked among the nation’s top 25 nationally.<\/p>\n Head coach Scott Drew’s team will begin their final half-season in the Ferrell Center ranked 17th in the coaches poll and 20th in the AP poll<\/a> — the fifth straight year the Bears have begun play among the top 25.<\/p>\n This year’s squad features a lot of new faces. But even after losing four starters from last year to graduation, the NBA and the transfer portal, the Bears still return three of last year’s top six scorers in senior forward Jalen Bridges, sophomore guard Langston Love and super-senior forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua,<\/p>\n They’ll be joined by a pair of notable transfers — senior guard RayJ Dennis, the unanimous MAC Player of the Year last season at Toledo, and junior guard Jayden Nunn, a starter on Virginia Commonwealth’s NCAA tournament team a year ago — and three standout freshmen who gave BU a top-15 recruiting class. Freshman guards Miro Little and Ja’Kobe Walter and center Yves Missi are all expected to play significant roles this year for the Bears.<\/p>\n Bridges and Dennis earned Preseason All-Big 12 recognition<\/a>, while Walter was named the league’s Preseason Freshman of the Year<\/a> — the third straight Bear to earn that honor, after Kendall Brown and Keyonte George. Walter was also named to the 2024 Jerry West Award Preseason Watch List<\/a> as one of the nation’s top-20 shooting guards, and Bridges made the 2024 Julius Erving Award Watch List<\/a> as a top-20 small forward.<\/p>\n The Bears will face a tough schedule that includes neutral-site games against No. 2 Duke (at Madison Square Garden), No. 4 Michigan State, Auburn, Oregon State, and either Pitt or Florida. The home slate includes the Bears’ last seven games at the Ferrell Center before they move to the newly constructed Paul & Alejandra Foster Pavilion; their debut at Foster is slated for Jan. 2 against Cornell.<\/p>\n