College Basketball Power 10: Louisville Cardinals Get Statement Win

3. Baylor (12-0)

Baylor continues to get first-place votes in the AP Top 25. The Bears are 12-0 after a 26-point win over Texas Southern last week. Their win over Texas Southern marks the end of their easy three-week stretch.

Baylor’s biggest challenge these next few weeks could be refocusing against good teams. Their schedule completely flipped over the past few weeks compared to the first month of their season when they played a ranked team almost every week.

Now, they start Big 12 play and can’t afford a bad performance without it costing them their perfect season.

On the court, Baylor’s biggest issue is scoring. They still only rank 72nd in the nation with 79.6 points per game. The Bears did top 80 points in each of their past four games, but they only reached that feat once in their first eight games.

Baylor isn’t a three-point shooting team, which contributes to their lack of scoring. They rank 273rd in threes taken this season and only Manu Lecomte and Allerik Freeman take more than 2.5 threes per game — 4.8 and 4.3 per game, respectively.

Baylor will eventually have to score in the 80s to win a game, but so far their stifling defense has been good enough to hold four ranked teams to fewer than 65 points.

The Baylor Bears will travel to Norman, Oklahoma, to take on the Oklahoma Sooners this week.