College Basketball Rankings: Baylor Bears Move Up, Texas Tech Falls

The latest Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball rankings were released on February 14. The No.1 team was dethroned, the Baylor Bears moved up in the ranks, and Texas Tech Red Raiders fell out of the top ten.

For the first time in three weeks, there is a new No.1 team. The Gonzaga Bulldogs moved into the No.1 spot for the third time this season, swapping places in the top two with the Auburn Tigers. 

Auburn lost 80-76 on the road in overtime against the No.23 Arkansas Razorbacks last week. It was their first loss since November, snapping a 19-game winning streak, and dropped them to No.2 in the rankings. 

Gonzaga claimed 56 of the 60 first-place votes, with Auburn earning the remaining four. Gonzaga was ranked as the No.1 team in the preseason Top 25 and is coming off a loss in the national championship game to Baylor last season. 

Rounding out the top five is Arizona, which climbed one spot to No.3, followed by Kentucky at No.4, and Purdue at No.5.

At No.6 is the highest-ranked team from the Big 12 Conference, the Kansas Jayhawks. Despite suffering a 79-76 loss to the No.20 Texas Longhorns last week, Kansas moved up two spots in the rankings. Over the weekend, the Jayhawks rebounded from the Texas loss by escaping with an 81-79 home victory against unranked Oklahoma.

Following behind at No.7 is the reigning champions, the Baylor Bears. Baylor moved up three spots following a 75-60 victory on the road over Kansas State last week and a dominant 80-63 home win against the No.20 Longhorns over the weekend.

Baylor was the more dominant and physical team from the get-go against Texas. The Bears made 50% of their shot attempts against the Longhorns, who had the nation’s top-rated scoring defense entering the game. Baylor also out-rebounded Texas 42-32 and had five players score double-digits. 

The Bears were short-handed, playing their fifth consecutive game without leading scorer LJ Cryer because of a foot injury, but it made no difference. Texas’ narrowest deficit after halftime was when they trailed by 11 with 9:18 remaining. Baylor immediately responded with an 8-0 run to take a commanding 73-54 lead. The Bears have now won 11 of the last 12 meetings against the Longhorns on the basketball court. 

Texas remained No.20 in the rankings, the same spot as last week following their win over Kansas and loss to Baylor over the previous week. They are the fourth-highest Big 12 team in the rankings. 

The third highest ranked from the Big 12 is the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who dropped from No.9 in last week’s rankings to No.11 this week. Texas Tech dropped after a 70-55 loss on the road to the unranked Oklahoma Sooners last week. The three-point line made the difference as the Red Raiders struggled mightily, making only 2-of-17 shots from three. On the other hand, the Sooners were on fire from deep, knocking down 13-of-28 three-point attempts.

Texas Tech did rebound to secure an 82-69 road win over TCU last weekend. The Red Raiders trailed 35-22 before going on a 24-5 run that spanned over both sides of halftime. 

The team that suffered the most significant drop in the rankings this week was the Houston Cougars. After making it to No.6 in last week’s rankings, Houston dropped eight spots to No.14 following two straight losses last week. First, they dropped an 85-83 thriller on the road to SMU. Then, they shockingly lost 69-59 at home to an unranked Memphis. Houston had won 37 consecutive home games since their previous loss at home in December 2019.