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One of the Big 12’s all-time leading rebounders is gone along with an NBA lottery pick and the starting point guard.

But the Baylor men’s basketball team believes it has enough talent and depth to win its first Big 12 title and make some noise in the NCAA tournament.

The Bears not only bring back capable scorers like Johnathan Motley, Terry Maston, Al Freeman and King McClure, former Miami point guard Manu Lecomte is eligible to play this season.

Coming off last year’s 22-12 season, Baylor has experience and plenty of motivation after two straight first-round exits in the NCAA tournament, including a 79-75 loss to Yale last season.

The Bears opened practice Friday in preparation for the Nov. 11 season opener against Oral Roberts at the Ferrell Center.

“For sure, we’re definitely hungry,” Freeman said. “We’ve still got a bad taste in our mouth from that (Yale) game. We want to do everything we can to put ourselves in a good position for the tournament by winning every game during the year. And when that time comes, we’re going to be ready, we’re going to be focused. You don’t really forget stuff like that, especially when you worked hard all year to prevent that from happening.”