College Basketball

Baylor Bears guard LJ Cryer leads the No. 1-ranked team in scoring off the bench

Updated Dec. 15, 2021 6:57 p.m. ET

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By Andy Katz
FOX Sports College Basketball Analyst

LJ Cryer had every reason to bolt Baylor.

He was a 3,488-point scorer at Mortan Ranch High School in Katy, Texas, the fifth-most points all time in Texas public schools.

Last season as a freshman for the Bears, Cryer scored 67 total points in 20 games as a reserve. And Baylor won the national title, running away from Gonzaga in the championship game in Indianapolis.

"Last year was hard," said Cryer, a 6-foot-1 guard. "I had to face a lot of adversity. Of course, it bothered me, but I knew I had three All-Americans in front of me. I just knew this was a great situation, and I could learn from it. I took it as a challenge to get better, and eventually it would pay off, and I would get my time."

Cryer’s patience speaks volumes to his character and resolve — and the culture at Baylor.

"A lot of people don’t want to face adversity head-on," he said. "A lot of people tend to run from it. I didn’t want to do that."

As a sophomore, Cryer is being rewarded. He is the leading scorer, at 14.6 points per game, on the No. 1-ranked, undefeated Bears. And he still comes off the bench.

"He’s about winning, embracing whatever role to help," Baylor coach Scott Drew said 48 hours after the Bears demolished Villanova 57-36 on Sunday.

"LJ doesn’t start the game, but when he comes in, we have the confidence in his ability," Drew said. "When we go to the bench, we get better, not worse."

In the current college hoops climate, players often bolt when things don't go their way in terms of minutes, shot attempts and featured plays. That’s not the case at Baylor. The Bears have had a history under Drew of players waiting their turn.

Davion Mitchell, Jared Butler and Macio Teague — the three lead guards of the title team, who have all moved on — exhibited that for Cryer last season.

"Those guys helped mold us and set us up in the position that we’re in today," Cryer said. "They pushed us in practice every day last year. Our practices and workouts were hard."

Cryer said that even during the pandemic, he never felt alone.

"Usually if you go into the gym, someone was working out," he said. "Everyone here sacrifices for each other. Last year, everyone did what it took to win a championship. To do that this year, the new guys had to come in and buy in to the culture."

Coming off the bench hasn’t fazed Cryer. 

Purdue coach Matt Painter is doing the same thing with Trevion Williams. He’s clearly the best big man at Purdue and maybe in the Big Ten, yet he has embraced being the second big to enter the game.

It's a similar situation with Cryer.

"I’m for the team," he said. "I could plead my case why I should start. That’s not why I’m here. I’m here to win games."

Drew makes the point that because the majority of college players who enter the NBA will come off the bench, doing so in college prepares them for the transition.

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Cryer comes from an athletic family, with both his parents having played sports at Grambling. His father, Lionel Sr., was a football player, and his mother, Tamica, played volleyball.

"They showed me hard work," Cryer said. "They sacrificed for me to be in this position, taking me to camps. My mom let me dribble in the house until midnight or 1 a.m. They sacrificed a lot of sleep for me. My dad would rebound before and after school. They worked hard to help me chase my dreams."

Last season was merely a pause on those dreams. 

As was the case last season, the players on this Baylor roster traveled varied paths to Waco. James Akinjo played at Georgetown and Arizona before landing at Baylor. Returnees Adam Flagler began his career at Presbyterian, and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua started at UNLV. Matthew Mayer and Flo Thamba are back for years three and four, respectively, in Waco. Jeremy Sochan and Kendall Brown are freshmen.

"They’ve all bought in to the culture," Drew said. "I’ve loved their work ethic, their talent, their chemistry."

Cryer said he knew during practices this summer that the Bears could make another title run.

"I knew we were different," he said. "We had more length. We were more athletic and thought we could be scary on defense. It was just a matter of time before the world saw."

Again, Villanova scored 36 points against the Bears on Sunday. Thirty-six.

"That shows how special we could be," Cryer said. "We’re all locked in and bought into it."

Baylor had already beaten Stanford, VCU, Arizona State and Michigan State before Villanova. The Bears play at Oregon on Saturday.

There’s a good chance Baylor could hang on to the No. 1 ranking for a while. The Bears are in elite company with Gonzaga as the only Division I teams to be ranked No. 1 in each of the past three seasons.

"Every coach wants to be No. 1 at the end of the year," Drew said. "But it’s a great accomplishment. It’s humbling to know there are 358 teams out there."

And it helps to have unselfish players such as Cryer leading your team.

Andy Katz is a longtime college basketball writer, analyst and host. He can be seen on FOX Sports and Big Ten Network platforms, as well as March Madness and NCAA.com, and he hosts the podcast "March Madness 365." Katz worked at ESPN for nearly two decades and, prior to that, in newspapers for nine years.

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