WBB: Big 12 Power Rankings, Round 5

Big 12 Women Power Rankings 1 @BaylorWBB 2-10 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Hat tip to @dfank_BU)

— Lewis Franklin (@brolewis) February 1, 2015

(1) Baylor (Last Week: 1)

9-0 Conference, 20-1 Overall

Last Week	at TCU W 89-67	vs Kansas W 66-58
This Week	at Oklahoma State	at Texas

All we do is win. Baylor has made it through half of conference play without suffering a loss, winning by an average of 17.6 points. Only three games were decided by single digits and two of those were against Kansas and we are done with that opponent. That leaves West Virginia, which was played on the road. Baylor has also faced everyone in the conference except current power rank #2 Oklahoma and #10 Texas Tech, giving them a good sampling of conference foes.

(2) Oklahoma (Last Week: 2)

7-2 Conference, 13-7 Overall

Last Week	at Texas L 81-84 (2OT)	at West Virginia L 69-78
This Week	vs Iowa State	vs Kansas State

Lewis! How dare you keep a team that lost two games in the #2 slot? My response? #Scoreboard, or more accurately: #Standings. Even with the two losses, Oklahoma still has a two game lead on the next team. While the loss to West Virginia was not pretty it was against a team that has played well at home (see: Baylor), the loss to Texas was a double overtime loss to a team facing the possibility of a three game losing streak. As a result, I've tried not to allow recency bias over-influence my decision and so feel justified in keeping Oklahoma in this position, for now.

(3) TCU (Last Week: 5)

5-4 Conference, 13-7 Overall

Last Week	vs Baylor L 67-89	vs Texas W 64-59
This Week	at West Virginia	vs Texas Tech

TCU continues to be the surprise team for me this year. While they were unable to keep up with a Baylor team that was playing lights out (see what I did there?), Coach Mulkey spoke highly of the team and they tried to pick and stick with a strategy that they just didn't have the personnel for and ended up the loser. As I have said before in the power rankings, losing to a (the) top tier teams will not really have much of a negative impact on many teams. TCU then returned to its solid home court form and knocked off Texas.

(4) Texas (Last Week: 4)

4-5 Conference, 15-5 Overall

Last Week	vs Oklahoma W 84-81 (2OT)	at TCU L 59-64
This Week	at Kansas State	vs Baylor

Texas picked up a big win defeating Oklahoma, but this was a game that went into double overtime and it felt like it was a team fighting for relevance and wanting desperately not to have a three game losing streak. They followed up this hard fought game with a road trip to TCU. The fact that TCU has been playing well at home coupled with Texas still trying to find its identity in a post-Enemkpali world brought Texas to 4-5 in conference and having lost five of their last seven.

(5) Iowa State (Last Week: 3)

5-4 Conference, 14-6

Last Week	vs Kansas L 56-61	vs Oklahoma State L 62-63
This Week	at Oklahoma	vs West Virginia

Just last week I felt like Iowa State was my sneaky good team. They had only two losses, one to Baylor and one they were able to vindicate at home. Then the week played out and Iowa State found itself on the losing end in two games, losing both games at home. In the Big 12 you have to take care of the home court and Iowa State failed at that twice.

(6) West Virginia (Last Week: 7)

3-6 Conference, 13-8 Overall

Last Week	at Texas Tech L 57-73	vs Oklahoma W 78-69
This Week	vs TCU	at Iowa State

West Virginia has been all over the map this year. This past week they went into Lubbock and laid an egg, losing by 16 to a struggling Tech team. They then returned home and took down Oklahoma.

(7) Kansas (Last Week: 8)

3-6 Conference, 12-10 Overall

Last Week	at Iowa State W 61-56	at Baylor L 58-66
This Week	vs Texas Tech	vs Oklahoma State

Man, I say one bad thing about Kansas and they go on a tirade. First, they go into Ames, Iowa and take down Iowa State and the go on the road to Baylor and give our Lady Bears their closest home game of the year.

(8) Oklahoma State (Last Week: 6)

3-6 Conference, 13-7 Overall

Last Week	at Kansas State L 51-52 (OT)	at Iowa State W 63-62
This Week	vs Baylor	at Kansas

Oklahoma State started the week with an overtime loss to Kansas State in the Little Apple, giving them a four-game losing streak. Not wanting to let that streak define them, they went into Ames and handed Iowa State their second loss of the week.

(9) Kansas State (Last Week: 10)

3-6 Conference, 13-7 Overall

Last Week	vs Oklahoma State W 52-51 (OT)	at Texas Tech W 41-38
This Week	vs Texas	at Oklahoma

Kansas State started their week off well, battling Oklahoma State into overtime and coming away the one-point victor. They followed that up with going into Lubbock and coming away with a 3 point victory. While it would be easy to place Kansas State in the (8) position given the fact that they picked up two wins this week, I felt that Oklahoma State's victory over Iowa State was better than Kansas State's over Texas Tech and the game between them was so close it wasn't a deciding factor for me.

(10) Texas Tech (Last Week: 9)

3-6 Conference, 13-8 Overall

Last Week	vs West Virginia W 73-57	vs Kansas State L 38-41
This Week	at Kansas	at TCU

Texas Tech took down West Virginia at home only to lose to Kansas State on that same court.