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The Associated Press released its Preseason Men’s Basketball Top 25 earlier today. The Baylor Bears, fresh off of 4th place finish in the final AP Poll last season, check in tied for 5th with reigning national champions (and conference competitors), the Kansas Jayhawks.
FIRST AP POLL OF THE 2022-23 SEASON!
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) October 17, 2022
1. North Carolina
2. Gonzaga
3. Houston
4. Kentucky
T5. Baylor
T5. Kansas
7. Duke
8. UCLA
9. Creighton
10. Arkansas
This marks the third consecutive season where Baylor is ranked in the Top 10 nationally without having played a single game. That’s truly remarkable. Scott Drew’s program is now a nationally recognized powerhouse that shows no signs of slowing down. Last season, Baylor was ranked 8th in the preseason poll while the year before they held the No. 2 spot heading into what would be the best season in program history. This is only the 10th time in program history that the team is ranked in the preseason poll.
The rest of the poll’s top 5 consist of (in order) North Carolina, Gonzaga, Houston, and Kentucky.
Top 25 teams on Baylor’s non-conference schedule include Gonzaga (2), Arkansas (10), Virginia (18) and either UCLA (8) or Illinois (23).
The Big XII has 5 representatives in the poll, tying the SEC for the most by any conference. Baylor and Kansas are each tied for 5th. Texas (12) and TCU (14) are also inside the top 15. Texas Tech claims the last spot in the poll at 25th.
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