NCAA Basketball: Arizona, Iowa State, Houston rise in latest top 25 power rankings
By Joey Loose
14. Baylor (17-6)
Scott Drew’s squad has played some great basketball this season, but they haven’t been perfect by any means. They had a dreadful performance against Michigan State nearly two months ago and have lost several games at the very end since Big 12 play began. Still, this very talented team has some nice wins in conference play, but had one more heartbreaker this week.
That didn’t come on Tuesday, as they won 79-73 against Texas Tech to extend their winning streak back up to 3 games. RayJ Dennis had 21 points while Yves Missi added 17 points and 7 rebounds. The heartbreaker came Saturday, as the Bears lost 64-61 at Kansas in a game where they turned the ball over 21 times. Missi was impressive again with 21 points and 8 rebounds while JaKobe Walter had 17 points and 8 rebounds of his own.
No one can be too beaten up over a 6-4 start in this Big 12. Baylor has played better basketball the last two weeks since a tough stretch in the middle of January. The Bears rebuilt this backcourt in the offseason and are seeing the fruits of their labor pay off. While this close loss in Lawrence stings, the Bears have to quickly refocus, with Oklahoma coming up in the middle of next week.