Texas Tech basketball: Players we are happy to see leave the Big 12

Baylor: Freddie Gillespie

Baylor’s Freddie Gillespie was a unique player who allowed head coach Scott Drew to do something he has rarely done in his successful tenure in Waco.  Because the 6-foot-9, 245-pounder was such a great on-ball defender, the Bears were able to deploy a smothering man-to-man defense in 2019-20 after relying heavily on zone defenses throughout the nearly two decades that Drew has been in charge.

What’s more, Gillespie was versatile enough to guard any player on the court and he routinely checked the opposition’s best scorer, regardless of what position that player played.  For instance, he was the man that Drew sent after Tech’s leading scorer, Jahmi’us Ramsey, for much of the two matchups this year.

As a senior, the former walk-on transfer was fourth on the team in scoring at 9.6 points per game and led the Bears in rebounding at 9.0 per contest.  He was also Baylor’s leader in defensive efficiency rating by surrendering just an estimated 85.5 points per 100 possessions.

Against Tech, it was on the glass where he did his most damage from a statistical standpoint this season.  In Lubbock, he pulled down ten rebounds, seven of the offensive variety, to go along with nine points.  In Waco, he grabbed ten more rebounds, that time with eight coming on the offensive end of the floor,

In 2020-21, Baylor returns just about everyone else from this year’s team and they will likely be the preseason pick to win the Big 12.  But don’t overlook how much they will miss Freddie Gillespie because he was the key to everything they did on defense in 2019-20.