Baylor Skyrockets to No. 1 in Latest Big 12 Basketball Power Rankings
The Big 12 men’s basketball season is now 10 weeks old and the league slate is now three games old and there have been plenty of upsets.
The Athletic recently described the Big 12 as a “circular firing squad” and it couldn’t be more apt. This league has an “eat your young” kind of feel to it. After all, in the space of 24 hours, both No. 2 Houston and No. 3 Kansas lost on the road to unranked teams last week.
How crazy is this league? Last week’s power rankings featured six teams on the first tier after one game of conference play. Only two of them are above .500 in league play after three games.
Also new to the power rankings are four tiers of teams. The results of the past week demand it.
After 10 weeks, we present our latest Big 12 men’s basketball power rankings for the 2023-24 season and three games into Big 12 play.
Tier One
1. Baylor (14-2, 3-0) – Last Week — 4
2. Texas Tech (14-2, 3-0) – Last Week — 8
3. Kansas (14-2, 2-1) – Last Week — 2
4. Iowa State (13-3, 2-1) – Last Week — 10
You want to get on me about Kansas? Fine. Go for it. But if you’re the No. 3 team in the nation, you don’t go to a new Big 12 school and play for 20 minutes like you don’t know how to run a zone offense. Kansas gagged at UCF and uncharacteristically so. They were up 16 at one point. You can’t lose that lead and be the kind of team Kansas wants to be in March. This league will make the best teams do that and, for now, even with the win over OU, the Jayhawks have to take a step back.
Am I being too hard on them? Maybe. But when you’re the Jayhawks your standard is different.
Baylor is playing the best basketball in the conference right now, followed by Texas Tech. Iowa State jumps to this tier because of its win over Houston and because it avoided the letdown against Oklahoma State. I believe these Cyclones are better offensively than they’ve shown in league play. The 3-point shooting is there. It’s a slow start from distance. Fortunately, the Cyclones have that defense to lean on.
As for Texas Tech, a 3-0 start is surprising to me. You never quite know with the coaching change and a loss like Devan Cambridge. But the grit this team has shown in its first three games is going to keep them in the mix for a while.
Tier Two
5. TCU (13-3, 2-1) – Last Week — 9
6. Kansas State (12-4, 2-1) – Last Week — 11
7. Texas (12-4, 1-2) – Last Week — 5
8. Oklahoma (13-3, 1-2) – Last Week — 3
9. Houston (14-2, 1-2) – Last Week — 1
The real difficulty here was determining just how far to drop Houston. Eight spots is steep, especially when the Cougars could have won both games last week. But, “could have” is something you hear a lot in this league and Houston will have to graduate to “they did” to move up. LJ Cryer is in a full-blown slump. Fortunately, Houston has the offensive firepower to ride it out.
TCU takes the lead on this tier after beating two ranked teams at home and two Top 10 teams at that, including Houston. Emanuel Miller’s game, if it’s possible, continues to grow. There’s nothing flashy about what he does, but he’s going to make an NBA team’s need for forward depth very happy one day.
K-State soars, even with the loss to Texas Tech (there’s another “could have”). Texas and Oklahoma both tumble. I still like Texas, but it can’t all be Dylan Disu and Max Abmas. A third option has to emerge consistently. I also like Oklahoma, but we may be starting to see that they’re not quite at the level of a Top 25 ranking. This coming week is a big one for them to reinforce those credentials.
Tier Three
10. UCF (10-5, 1-2) – Last Week — 13
11. Cincinnati (12-4, 1-2) – Last Week — 7
12. BYU (13-3, 1-2) – Last Week — 6
I went back and forth on UCF and determined that a three-spot boost was appropriate for the win over Kansas. The Knights lost to BYU, but they didn’t lose by much.
Cincinnati is a hard-luck team. After beating BYU in the opener, the Bearcats nearly beat Texas at home and nearly beat Baylor on the road. What they’ve shown is they’re capable of beating anyone. But Cincinnati needs to get healthy. It seems like every time I turn around coach Wes Miller is talking about an injury.
BYU needed that win over UCF, but after three games I think UCF and Cincinnati are better than the Cougars. Remember — I try to make power rankings about the “now” and not necessarily where we end up. All three of these teams are learning that the Big 12 is game-to-game, not week-to-week.
Tier Four
14. West Virginia (6-10, 1-2) – Last Week — 14
12. Oklahoma State (8-8, 0-3) – Last Week — 12
How much of a boost should I give WVU beat Texas at home on Saturday? I had to remind myself that WVU fell to Kansas State by 14 earlier in the week. The question is, did it do enough during the week to jump a tier? Just not quite enough in my mind.
Oklahoma State is the only winless team remaining in league play. Coach Mike Boynton has accumulated a lot of talent but the chemistry is not there. It’s also clear that as good as that talent is, there is a gap between the Cowboys and the rest of the conference. This past week they looked overmatched.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
