Baylor Drops Back Out of National Polls after Loss to No. 3 Iowa State
After a tough loss to The No. 3 Iowa State Cyclones in Ames, the Baylor Men’s Basketball team dropped back out of the national polls. The Bears were No. 25 in the Associated Press poll and No. 21 in the USA Today Coaches poll heading into their Saturday road tilt. Now Scott Drew’s squad are receiving votes in both polls and sitting at No. 29 and No. 26 respectively.
The Green and Gold are now preparing to face a Cincinnati squad in a very similar situation on Tuesday in Waco. The Bearcats were No. 16/17 last week before back-to-back single-digit losses to open conference play: 70-67 at Kansas State and 72-67 vs. Arizona.
For Iowa State’s part, the Cyclones remained the top-ranked Big 12 team at No. 3 in both polls for the fifth straight week. T. J. Otzelberger’s squad is one of four teams undefeated in Big 12 play at the time of writing. The other programs are Arizona, Houston and West Virginia.
The Cougars from down Highway 6 moved up to No. 12 in the AP poll and No. 11 in the Coaches poll after relatively easy wins at Oklahoma State and home against BYU.
West Virginia and first year head coach Darian DeVries broke into both polls for the first time this season after a surprise Big 12 opening win at Kansas (62-61) and a wire-to-wire victory over Oklahoma State in Morgantown.
Arizona, who have broken into the receiving votes category of both polls, topped TCU out in Tucson before their win at Cincinnati. The Bears make a swing through the Grand Canyon State — playing the Sun Devils then the Wildcats — after the matchup with the Bearcats on Tuesday.
The Kansas Jayhawks, preseason favorite to win the league, bounced back from the WVU loss to destroy UCF in Orlando. Bill Self’s team now sits at No. 11 in the AP poll and No. 12 in the Coaches poll.
Texas Tech received a small number of votes in the AP and a single vote in the Coaches poll to round things out for the Big 12 this week.
With two games under everyone’s belts, here are the Big 12 standings:
| Place | Team | Big 12 | Overall |
| 1 | Iowa State | 2-0 | 12-1 |
| 2 | West Virginia | 2-0 | 11-2 |
| 3 | Houston | 2-0 | 10-3 |
| 4 | Arizona | 2-0 | 8-5 |
| 5 | Arizona State | 1-1 | 10-3 |
| 6 | BYU | 1-1 | 10-3 |
| 7 | Kansas | 1-1 | 10-3 |
| 8 | Texas Tech | 1-1 | 10-3 |
| 9 | UCF | 1-1 | 10-3 |
| 10 | Baylor | 1-1 | 9-4 |
| 11 | TCU | 1-1 | 8-5 |
| 12 | Kansas State | 1-1 | 7-6 |
| 13 | Cincinnati | 0-2 | 10-3 |
| 14 | Colorado | 0-2 | 9-4 |
| 15 | Oklahoma State | 0-2 | 8-5 |
| 16 | Utah | 0-2 | 8-5 |
And here are the KenPom ratings of every Big 12 team:
| Team | Overall | Offense | Defense |
| Houston | 3 | 14 | 2 |
| Iowa State | 5 | 8 | 9 |
| Kansas | 8 | 25 | 5 |
| Texas Tech | 14 | 10 | 63 |
| Arizona | 17 | 18 | 27 |
| Baylor | 22 | 13 | 52 |
| Cincinnati | 28 | 61 | 7 |
| West Virginia | 36 | 79 | 15 |
| BYU | 41 | 29 | 73 |
| Arizona State | 57 | 92 | 34 |
| TCU | 73 | 155 | 25 |
| UCF | 81 | 97 | 89 |
| Kansas State | 86 | 106 | 87 |
| Colorado | 87 | 135 | 57 |
| Utah | 90 | 94 | 100 |
| Oklahoma State | 109 | 173 | 93 |