After a big road win, No. 1 Baylor held firm atop the men’s AP college basketball poll this week. The reigning national champion Bears earned all 61 first-place votes for the third time in the past four weeks. The team recently knocked off No. 8 Iowa State in Ames on Saturday and moved to 13-0 on the season.
Enduring a tough battle, Baylor played with poise and confidence. The offense looked balanced as six players scored between nine and 16 points. The team hit their stride in the second half, looking like the No. 1 team they deserve to be. They hit 50 percent of their field goal attempts in the 20 minute period over the nation’s No. 9 ranked field goal defense.
Up next, Baylor will take on Oklahoma at home.
Besides the red hot Bears, the rest of the top seven spots remained unchanged as well. Duke, Purdue, Gonzaga and UCLA round out the top five. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its recent surge, the Blue Devils, Bulldogs, and Bruins weren’t able to play last week. The Bruins have not played since December 11.
Looking into the future, lots of changes may be coming as conference play is just around the corner, and it looks to be heating up pretty quickly.
Big Rises/Falls
Auburn jumped to No. 9 after handing LSU its first loss of the season last week.
Iowa State dropped three spots to No. 11.
LSU dropped five spots to No. 21.
Seton Hall fell nine spots to No. 24 after losses to Providence and Villanova.
Coming In/Out
No new teams enter or leave the mix
Latest AP Poll:
- Baylor
- Duke
- Purdue
- Gonzaga
- UCLA
- Kansas
- USC
- Arizona
- Auburn
- Michigan State
- Iowa State
- Houston
- Ohio State
- Texas
- Alabama
- Kentucky
- Providence
- Tennessee
- Villanova
- Colorado State
- LSU
- Xavier
- Wisconsin
- Seton Hall
- Texas Tech
Others receiving votes: Illinois 74, Oklahoma 71, Loyola Chicago 40, UConn 39, West Virginia 6, Iowa 5, Minnesota 3, San Francisco 3, Davidson 3, Creighton 2
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