The Big 12 conference has four teams ranked in this week's AP Top 25 poll that was released today, and by viewing the schedule for each of the four teams its obvious that this will be a week to work out kinks and bond closer as a team.
For teams like Baylor and Missouri, young and talented teams can tend to lose focus and have lapses during games. Scott Drew and Frank Haith will have to challenge their youngsters to look past their undefeated records and remind them to continue to put in the hard work and think of the long-term goal.
For Kansas and Texas A&M, this is an opportunity to lick their wounds a bit after suffering a loss the week prior. No better way to get over a tough game but by playing in another one.
Here is this week's schedule for the four ranked teams:
No. 7 Baylor Bears: 11/29 vs. Prairie View A&M (2-5), 12/4 at Northwestern (5-0)
No. 13 Missouri Tigers: 12/2 vs. Northwestern State (3-3)
No. 15 Kansas Jayhawks: 11/30 vs. Florida Atlantic (3-4), 12/3 vs. South Florida (5-2)
No. 25 Texas A&M Aggies: 11/30 vs. Alcorn State (1-4), 12/3 vs. Stephen F. Austin (2-2)
Here is the AP's Top 25 for week four:
AP Top 25 | |||
RK | TEAM | RECORD | PTS |
1 | Kentucky (46) | 6-0 | 1,599 |
2 | Ohio State (17) | 6-0 | 1,564 |
3 | Duke (2) | 7-0 | 1,465 |
4 | Syracuse | 6-0 | 1,439 |
5 | North Carolina | 5-1 | 1,337 |
6 | Louisville | 5-0 | 1,259 |
7 | Baylor | 5-0 | 1,183 |
8 | Connecticut | 6-1 | 1,055 |
9 | Wisconsin | 6-0 | 1,045 |
10 | Florida | 4-1 | 1,040 |
11 | Xavier | 4-0 | 982 |
12 | Alabama | 7-0 | 912 |
13 | Missouri | 6-0 | 746 |
14 | Michigan | 5-1 | 681 |
15 | Kansas | 3-2 | 676 |
16 | Marquette | 5-0 | 637 |
17 | Pittsburgh | 5-1 | 537 |
18 | UNLV | 7-0 | 535 |
19 | Gonzaga | 4-0 | 525 |
20 | Vanderbilt | 5-1 | 482 |
21 | Mississippi State | 7-1 | 277 |
22 | Memphis | 2-2 | 269 |
23 | Saint Louis | 6-0 | 149 |
24 | California | 5-1 | 121 |
25 | Texas A&M | 4-1 | 115 |
Others receiving votes: Creighton 104, Harvard 101, Michigan State 84, San Diego State 66, Georgetown 46, Florida State 24, Arizona 15, Illinois 13, Washington 12, Cleveland State 11, Purdue 6, Marshall 5, Stanford 3, Villanova 2, Virginia Tech 1, Northwestern 1, Cincinnati 1
Dropped from rankings: Florida State 22, Arizona 23