Texas Tech basketball was ranked 13th last week after dropping several tough games in a row. Then, when all hope looked lost against LSU, Mac McClung and Terrence Shannon Jr. pulled the team up by their collective bootstraps and forced a win in Baton Rouge. Since then, the team has won two more games and more than half the teams in front of them lost. Including Oklahoma who the Red Raiders themselves beat in Lubbock.

All of that together put the Red Raiders from number 13th in the country on last week's AP Poll to 7th in the country on the latest edition. Just ahead of Houston who sits at 8th after losing to ECU last week.

The bigger story here though isn't who is in the top 25, it's who isn't in the rankings.

None of the 13 winningest teams in NCAA history, that are eligible for the poll, are in the top 25. Kansas dropped out after flailing around for nearly three weeks. Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina have all lost a bunch of games. Indiana is slated to make the tournament but is on the bubble.

Even with the Jayhawks out, the Big 12 has five teams in the top 25. Baylor sits at number two and the Red Raiders sit at 7th. Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia are next at 12th, 13th and 14th respectively. Oklahoma State enters the AP rankings for the first time this season after beating the Jayhawks on Saturday and taking their place.

Texas Tech's news didn't stop with the top 10 ranking though.

Baylor has announced that beyond postponing their game the previous Saturday, they will now postpone their next four games including two matchups against West Virginia, one against Oklahoma, and next Saturday's tilt in Waco against the Red Raiders.

That's now six Baylor postponements for the undefeated Bears after missing a game against the Longhorns back in December.

There aren't enough days on the calendar to feasibly make these games up without playing back to backs and forcing teams to bend their wills and schedule's around Baylor to make it happen.

The conference reached out to CBS's Jon Rothstein to confirm that the Big 12 tournament was still going to happen, which means that the conference will not try to make up regular-season games once the regular season has finished.

It was originally thought that the conference would use the added week between the regular season and conference tournament to make up games, but the conference has been trying to add back games into the midweek. See TCU vs Texas Tech in back to back games next Monday and Wednesday. If the conference does try to play a few games before the tournament, can the Bears get 6 games in before the Big 12 tourney?

Do they want to?

Ohio State was awarded a Big Ten championship appearance without playing enough games during football season. What will the Big 12 allow Baylor to do to ensure that the best team in the conference is in a position to win a national championship?

 

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