Last October before the excitement of college basketball season began, I wrote about the 2023 All-Big 12 preseason honors that included a trio of Baylor Men’s Basketball players. In that post I wrote, “Baylor Men’s Basketball senior G Adam Flagler, freshman G Keynote George, and junior G LJ Cryer collectively composed the Bears trio earning 2022-23 All-Big 12 Preseason honors! The conference’s head coaches all vote on the All-Big 12 teams with each coach forbidden from voting for their own athlete. In the trio, Flagler snagged a spot on the All-Big 12 Team, George was named Preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year, and Cryer and George were both picked as All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selections. George is Baylor’s second consecutive Preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year, making the Bears “just the third program in Big 12 history to have back-to-back winners,” according to Baylor Athletics’ Jerry Hill (papa). Each of the guards in the Baylor trio is wildly talented and should excite all Bears fans in the coming months.” Now that we just concluded regular season play, those three athletes earned 2023 All-Big 12 Conference awards that similarly reflected their preseason standings! George followed his preseason accolade by being named Big 12 Freshman of the Year—the Bears’ first winner since Quincy Miller in 2012—and he earned spots on the Second Team, All-Freshman Team and All-Newcomer Team. Papa Jerry Hill stated that “George holds the program record for most 20-point games by a freshman (12)!” Flagler was named a unanimous 2023 All-Big 12 First Team pick and Cryer landed a spot on the Third Team. Hill said, “Flagler tied for the conference lead in three-point field goals per game (2.6), while finishing second in assist-turnover ratio (2.8) and three-point field goal percentage (.411). The Jerry West Award Top-10 candidate also led the team in assists 21 times this season.” Finally, Cryer led the Big 12 in 3 point field goals (42.1%) and tied for first in 3 pointers per game (2.6).
