Big 12 Basketball power rankings: Kansas State soars, Texas Tech falters

6. Baylor Bears – 10-4 (0-2)

Head coach Scott Drew has been sounding the alarm about his team for the past few weeks, including the close call they had against Northwestern State to end the non-conference. Then they had to deal with the absence of LJ Cryer to start league play. Not having him proved to be a major issue, as they fell to Iowa State in the Big 12 Basketball opener, 77-62.

Adam Flagler had 20 points to lead Baylor, with freshman Keyonte George scoring 16 points on 5/18 shooting. Forward Jalen Bridges had 12 points but no one else had more than five. They shot just 38% from the field overall as well.

Cryer did come back for the recent game against TCU and the offense benefitted as a result. He scored 13 points in 34 minutes, while George had 27 on 6/13 shooting and 11/12 from the free throw line. As a team, Baylor scored 87 points. Unfortunately for them, the Frogs scored 88 points to give the preseason top-10 team another conference defeat.

The next three games for Baylor are against West Virginia, Oklahoma State, and Kansas State. All three are winnable on paper since two are at home but this team doesn’t look like the preseason Final Four contender originally expected.