NCAA Basketball: UConn, Purdue rise on top 25 power ranking after Feast Week

6. Baylor (5-1)

With a number of teams playing at holiday tournaments this past week, Baylor stayed home for the holidays, having already participated in the Main Event, with that nice win over UCLA just over a week ago. Instead, these Bears picked up their fifth win of the season and started mentally preparing for a very difficult upcoming stretch of basketball.

That lone performance of the week was an 89-60 win at home against McNeese State, a game they only led by nine points at the half before pulling away. Freshman stud Keyonte George led the Bears with 17 points while LJ Cryer had 16 points and Adam Flagler had 13. The backcourt performed well against the Cowboys, getting the Bears another pretty easy win over a mid-major.

This is not the same team that won the national championship two years ago, but there are some very talented pieces here, especially in that aforementioned backcourt. We didn’t even mention the play of big men like Flo Thamba, and they’ll really need them to step up this upcoming week. The Bears get a potentially tricky game at Marquette, their first true road game of the year, before heading to South Dakota for a highly-anticipated matchup against Gonzaga.