Lady Bears swat away No. 2 UConn for third win over preseason top-5 opponent this month

Are Baylor fans getting spoiled? Since Nov. 1, Baylor football (ranked No. 12), men’s basketball (No. 6) and women’s basketball (No. 1) have combined to go 25-0, including five wins over ranked teams. (Oh, and there was that Heisman award, too.)

That includes the Lady Bears’ win over No. 2 UConn Sunday night, 66-61, the team’s third non-conference game this season against a top-4 preseason opponent. As you may remember, head coach Kim Mulkey’s squad topped the preseason polls, followed by No. 2 Notre Dame (lost to BU 94-81), No. 3 Tennessee (lost to BU — in Knoxville — 76-67) and No. 4 UConn. All three have fallen to the Lady Bears in the last month, as Baylor has run its record to 11-0.

A Ferrell Center-record crowd of 10,627 sold out the arena more than two weeks before the game, a first for the Lady Bears, and a couple million more watched on ESPN as Baylor cemented its No. 1 ranking (which was already unanimous in the AP poll and should be in the coaches poll as well when new rankings come out today and tomorrow).

My favorite tidbit from Sunday night (besides the result)? The Lady Bears have now become such a draw that veteran NBA head coach Jeff Van Gundy, now an ESPN analyst, expressly asked to come to Waco to work this game, and ESPN obliged. Network anchor Linda Cohn also had great things to say about not just Baylor athletics but the entire university in a three-minute highlight package at the top of SportsCenter last night.

Sic ’em, Lady Bears!