Wright wasn't wrong: Former Baylor guard shows out for BYU against former team

Rob Wright knew exactly what he was walking into in his return to Waco on Tuesday night.

With Foster Pavilion erupting in boos every time the former Baylor point guard touched the ball, Wright dropped a career high 30 points for BYU to help the Cougars get a 99-94 win over the Bears. 

“That’s definitely what I expected,” Wright said. “I remember when we played LJ (Cryer and Houston) here last year, so I was expecting that. I think I handled it pretty well.”

In his one year at Baylor, Wright was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman team and an all-conference honorable mention, and holds the single-season (146) and single-game (13) freshman assists records.

He surprised Baylor coaches and fans when he entered the transfer portal in April despite signing an NIL contract with the Bears.

The fans inside Foster Pavilion chanted, ‘Traitor!’ during BYU player introductions and again when Wright hit a pair of crucial free throws with 22 seconds left to all but seal the win for the Cougars.

“Rob is very mature,” BYU head coach Kevin Young said. “I honestly wasn’t worried about him at all. He’s very level-headed and a very composed player. I thought he handled it great. Obviously, he had an unbelievable game.”

Wright had some memorable games in Foster Pavilion last season. He had his record-setting assist game against Norfolk State in December 2024, and he scored 24 points to help the Bears rally in the second half to beat Kansas last January.

It was the first time in his career, spanning both BYU and Baylor, that he played all 40 minutes.

He grabbed four rebounds and dished out four assists, while hitting a team-high two 3-pointers. 

“There’s a reason we loved him last year,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “We’ve seen a lot of that.”

Drew knew the crowd would respond.

Asked about Wright’s return earlier this week, he encouraged fans to be loud and make a road environment tough without crossing the line like Oklahoma State did with its anti-Mormon chants last week.

“I have to give the Baylor fans credit, they kept it classy,” Young said. “They went at him, but it was in a way that was... good, if that makes sense. The way Rob responded in having a tremendous game and helping us pull it out at the end was pretty cool.”

The BYU players knew what was at stake.

“I wanted to get Rob the win,” said BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa, who scored 36 points for the Cougars. “I knew they were still gonna boo, but if you get him going early, silencing the crowd is a good feeling.”

A consistent Big 12-ready point guard like Wright is exactly what the Bears have been missing most this season.

The sophomore is 10th in the conference, averaging nearly five assists per game, and is even more dangerous with Dybantsa, a projected NBA lottery pick, Keba Keita and Richie Saunders in the fold.

In a hostile environment against his former team, Wright got the last word.

“I just wanted to get a win,” Wright said. “Coming in here for shootaround, I didn’t really feel nothing. When we came out to warm up, I felt a little emotion seeing some of the managers and coaches who coached me here.

“I’m just glad that I got a win, to be honest.”