Baylor Basketball Rises to #4 in AP Poll

Your shootyhoops Bears are off to a historically hot start to the 2016-17 season and it's reflecting in the polls as Baylor has moved all the way up to #4 in this week's AP poll behind only defending national champion Villanova, UCLA and Kansas. BU moved up five spots from #9 after last Saturday's convincing home win over previously #7 Xavier, giving Baylor its third top 10 win of the young season. This is already the most top 10 wins that Baylor has ever acculumated in a single season and it's only early December!

This week's poll also marks the fourth occurrence for the Bears to appear in the top 5 of the AP poll, with the previous three appearances happening on consecutive weeks in January 2012 when Baylor got up as high as #3. 3 is the highest that Baylor has ever reached in the AP poll and with a fairly light schedule over the next few weeks, there is a chance that BU could eclipse that mark if the teams in front of them happen to lose. Pretty good for a team that wasn't even receiving votes in the poll three weeks ago!

Baylor also received 6 first place votes in the poll, which is the most the program has ever received. National media has taken note of the fact that the Bears have already accumulated five wins against the KenPom top 50 (Louisville, Xavier, Oregon, Michigan State, VCU). BU received the second-most #1 votes, coming in only behind top-ranked Villanova.

In addition, Baylor has come in at #6 in the Coaches' poll which is also the highest such ranking since that same 2012 Elite Eight season. The Bears are off this week for final exams and will return to action on December 14th when they take on Southern in the Ferrell Center. The next key game on the schedule will be the conference opener on December 30th when Baylor faces its first true road test of the season as they head up to Norman to take on Oklahoma.

Full AP poll can be found here.