–Horace
“Insomnia sharpens your math skills because you spend all night calculating how much sleep you’ll get if you’re able to ‘fall asleep right now.’ “
The Baylor Bears were left out of the AP Top 25 once again.
Despite having a sensational run of three victories over fringe tournament teams Alabama, Oklahoma and TCU by an average margin of 20.3 points, the Associated Press still did not vote the Bears as a ranked team. Baylor is winners of 10 of their last 13 games including a road victory over Arizona and at home against Oregon, No. 25 Iowa State and No. 8 Texas Tech.
The Bears extended their current winning streak up to six games and are tied for first place in the Big 12 with Kansas State at 6-2.
Below is the AP Top 25 for the 14th week of the college basketball season and how many votes they received:
1. Tennessee (1,579)
2. Duke (1,532)
3. Virginia (1,478)
4. Gonzaga (1,423)
5. Kentucky (1,310)
6. Nevada (1,228)
7. Michigan (1,217)
8. North Carolina (1,167)
9. Michigan State (1,051)
10. Marquette (1,029)
11. Virginia Tech (948)
12. Houston (838)
13. Kansas (809)
14. Villanova (801)
15. Purdue (697)
16. Louisville (561)
17. Iowa State (545)
18. Texas Tech (482)
19. Wisconsin (462)
20. Iowa (242)
21. LSU (205)
22. Florida State (180)
23. Buffalo (153)
24. Maryland (144)
25. Cincinnati (142)
The Bears did make up some ground, however. After receiving no votes a week ago, the Bears were able to snag 44 votes this week after their impressive performances. Ahead of the Bears outside of the top 25 was Washington with 135 votes, Auburn with 128 votes and Kansas State with 114 votes.
The Bears will play in Austin against Texas on Wednesday and return home to Waco to face Kansas State on Saturday prior to the next edition of the AP Poll next Monday. With those two pivotal games this week, two victories should hopefully solidify their place in the top 25 with wins.
Where do you think Baylor should be and which teams should be ahead or below them?
You can certainly excuse the Texas Southern game, which was played without Mason and Kegler and was the first Division I game for six of the nine scholarship players that saw action that night.Gruvin said:
While we are sxtremely hot right now, cant excuse the bottom feeder losses... yet
Not enough voters are far enough into the minutiae to accept / excuse the Texas Southern loss. On the media front, perhaps only Fraschilla would know that.bear2be2 said:You can certainly excuse the Texas Southern game, which was played without Mason and Kegler and was the first Division I game for six of the nine scholarship players that saw action that night.Gruvin said:
While we are sxtremely hot right now, cant excuse the bottom feeder losses... yet
The SFA loss was inexcusable, but upsets happen when you struggle from the field and don't knock down free throws late in close games.
Some of us fans tooShakesbear said:
Gotta prove we can win in Austin first, then beat K State. We won't see the top 25 unless both those things happen. Pollsters have seen us look good and then fold too many times. We don't have the street cred of a Kansas or UT, so pollsters are leery of us. Just make the tourney baby