Baylor basketball teams each ranked No. 2 in the nation to start the new year
Baylor’s men’s and women’s basketball teams each got a nice present when the first rankings of 2017 were announced Monday — matching No. 2 national rankings.
While simultaneous success for both men’s and women’s basketball is nothing new at Baylor, the rankings are rarified air for a school. Only one other team (Louisville) currently has both basketball teams ranked in the top 10, and only one other Big 12 school (West Virginia) even has both teams ranked in the top 25.
To put that in a little more context, only nine schools have ever seen both their men’s and women’s teams reach the Final Four in the same year. And only once has a team won both the men’s and women’s national titles in the same year (UConn in 2014).
[SEE: AP men’s basketball top 25 || AP women’s basketball top 25]
For the men, who began the season unranked and underrated, the No. 2 ranking is the highest in program history, a product of an unblemished 13-0 record and convincing wins over three other top 25 teams: No. 9 Louisville, No. 15 Oregon and No. 16 Xavier. Last week, the Bears opened Big 12 play with a convincing 76-50 win over Oklahoma on the road.
The Lady Bears already have wins over four top 25 teams — No. 9 UCLA, No. 11 Ohio State, No. 23 DePaul and No. 25 Kansas State — en route to a 13-1 record. Their lone loss came on the road to UConn, the No. 1 team in the nation. As the six-time defending Big 12 champions, they began their pursuit of a seventh straight Big 12 title with convincing wins over Kansas State and Kansas, winning by 30 and 47 points, respectively, in their first two conference games.
No other facility has hosted more high-level college basketball this year than the Ferrell Center, and fans will quickly have more opportunities to cheer on the Bears and Lady Bears at home. The men host Iowa State Wed., Jan. 4, and Oklahoma State on Sat., Jan. 7. The women are on the road this week, but return home Wed., Jan. 11, against TCU. Tickets are available online or at the Ferrell Center ticket office.
Sic ’em, Bears and Lady Bears!