The Big 12 is the best and deepest conference in college basketball, with its programs making up for nearly a quarter of the teams in last week’s USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.
Having six of a possible 14 teams ranked in the top 25, however, comes with a drawback for the players and coaches in the league: It’s difficult, if not impossible, to get through a week of games without playing at least one ranked opponent. Sometimes, that means one (or more) of the conference’s highly ranked teams loses a game.
Four of the Big 12’s six ranked teams lost last week, a group headlined by Kansas (19-5, 7-4 Big 12), which fell on the road in overtime against rival Kansas State last Monday before rebounding to knock off No. 13 Baylor (17-6, 6-4) 64-61 on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
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One week after losing on the road to Kansas in a battle of the conference’s top two teams, No. 5 Houston (21-3, 8-3) won both of its games last week, defeating Oklahoma State and Cincinnati to surpass the 20-win benchmark for the ninth-consecutive season.
Elsewhere, Baylor lost to Kansas, but managed to beat Texas Tech earlier in the week. Like Houston, No. 14 Iowa State (18-5, 7-3) bounced back from a loss the previous weekend to win both of its games, knocking off Texas and TCU. No. 19 BYU (17-6, 5-5) and No. 23 Texas Tech (17-6, 6-4) both lost, as well, dropping games against Oklahoma and Baylor, respectively.
What will that mean for the larger national outlook? Here are the latest updates to the Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 poll:
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College basketball rankings for Feb. 12
USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll
This section will be updated when the polls are released Monday afternoon.
AP Top 25
This section will be updated when the polls are released Monday afternoon.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: College basketball rankings: Where will Big 12 rank in Coaches, AP polls?
