Hoops:

Johnathan Motley earned his third Big 12 Player of the Week. From the Big 12:

Averaged 23.5 points and 14.0 rebounds while leading the Bears to wins versus Texas and at TCU.

Had 32 points and 20 rebounds against UT, the fourth 30-point, 20-rebound game in Big 12 play in league history.

Matched the Baylor record for rebounds in a Big 12 game and has five double-doubles in the last eight games.

He’s pretty, pretty, pretty good:

And Motley’s making watch lists, specifically the Oscar Robertson Trophy. From Baylorbears.com:

Baylor basketball forward Johnathan Motley is one of 19 players on the Oscar Robertson Trophy midseason watch list, as announced Monday by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

The Oscar Robertson Trophy has been presented annually by the USBWA to the Men’s National Player of the Year in every year since 1959. This year’s winner will be announced at a news conference on March 31 at the Final Four in Phoenix.

SI’s Michael Beller joins Joe Lundari of ESPN in moving the Bears to the #1 seed line:

Baylor is showing why you should not submit your seeding process to the ebb-and-flow nature of the college basketball season. An understandable loss to West Virginia two weeks ago—the Bears were 5.5-point underdogs in Morgantown—brought into question Baylor’s status as a No. 1 seed. Since then, the Bears have reeled off three relatively comfortable wins over Kansas State, Texas and TCU, two of which came on the road. The Bears were then, and are now, deserving of the top line. Kentucky, however, continues to nip at their heels.

The Lady Bears are ranked #2 in the country, and the men are ranked #5.

Recruiting:

Bleacher Report’s National Recruiting Coordinator, Damon Sayles, notes Baylor is truly lit:

With one more week of official visits to come before Feb. 1, college programs are looking to make their last moves on some of the nation's top athletes.

Baylor enters the final recruiting weekend as arguably the nation's hottest team. The Bears have picked up 12 commitments since Jan. 15, including the latest pledge, 4-star wide receiver Gavin Holmes, who tweeted his announcement Sunday evening.

Jake Trotter of ESPN also is a big believer in this class:

Because of the transition, the Bears got a late start. But when signing day comes, this figures to be yet another stellar vintage Baylor receiving class.

On 247, Justin Harris’ last several crystal ball predictions have him ending up at Baylor Harris is a defensive end.

Chabastin Taylor, a wide receiver, visited Baylor on January 18th. One prediction has him flipping his commitment from Kansas State.

And the Bears appear to have a decent shot at Johnathan Lovett, a New Jersey running back. Though Michigan State is a big player too.

DeMarco Artis, an outside linebacker and current Florida State commit, tweeted this out:

And Colt Barber of SicEm365 had this tweet about Connor Weddington’s official visit:

This Week in ODB:

I have a preview of the Baylor-Texas Tech game scheduled to go up, and depending on how our technology works, it may be up by now! Beezy has updated our recruiting thread here, too. And we should have some excellent pieces from other folks this week as well. Sic ‘Em!