College Basketball Power 10: Big 12 Continues To Dominate
By Jeremy Karll
5. Baylor (16-1)
Baylor’s reign over college basketball did not last long. They suffered their first loss of the season in their first game ranked first in the country. Baylor’s 89-68 loss was the worst loss of any team’s first game as the top-ranked team in the country.
Baylor responded with a hard-fought road win over Kansas State, but they still fell to No. 5 in the College Basketball Power 10, and the Associated Press dropped them to sixth.
The reasoning is simple, Baylor’s offense is hard to trust. Sure, they have five wins over ranked teams but they were all low-scoring games. Baylor held those five opponents to an average of 59.8 points per game.
In their first loss of the season, West Virginia scored 89 points and Baylor couldn’t manufacture enough offense.
Baylor turned the ball over 29 times while shooting 44.6 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from three. Johnathan Motley only had eight points on 3-of-10 shooting, too.
It’s not easy to break Baylor’s defense, or else they’d have more than one loss, but West Virginia showed that good shooting can send them into a frenzy.
The Bears still allow the 10th-fewest points per game in the nation, but it’s hard to count on them continuing this level of play without their offense becoming more consistent.
Baylor hosts Texas and travels to TCU this week.