Baylor Men's Basketball Drops Four Spots in Both Major Polls

Baylor men’s basketball has dropped in the major national polls for the second straight week after splitting a pair of ranked matchups at the Baha Mar Hoops Tournament.

The Bears now rank four spots lower in both the AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches poll, falling from No. 13 to No. 17 and from No. 14 to No. 18, respectively. 

This drop is deserved after Baylor’s lackluster performances in three of the four halves against formerly No. 22/20 St. John’s and currently No. 6/7 Tennessee.

The Red Storm dropped out of both polls after their OT loss to Baylor despite bouncing back with a 25-point win over Virginia. Meanwhile, Tennessee’s dominant wins over the Cavaliers and the Bears sent the Vols up four spots in the AP poll and three spots in the Coaches poll.

Baylor now sits below not only top-10 conference foes such as No. 1/1 Kansas, No. 5/5 Iowa State, and No. 6/7 Houston but also behind the No. 16/14 Cincinnati Bearcats.

Arizona rounds out the Big 12 teams in the polls, landing at No. 24 in the AP poll and No. 23 in the Coaches poll. However, BYU received the most votes outside of the top 25 in both polls. Other Big 12 teams receiving votes include Texas Tech and Arizona State. The Red Raiders fell out of their No. 24 spots in the Coaches poll last week with a 78-77 loss to St. Joseph’s on Thursday before rebounding with a win over Syracuse on Friday.

Teams that passed Baylor up in the AP poll this week include Marquette, Indiana and Wisconsin on top of Cincinnati. In the Coaches poll, the Bears were passed by Florida as well as the four teams listed above.

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