Baylor basketball makes top 25 of preseason KenPom rankings
While we're still in the dead heat of football season, college basketball time is inching closer and closer.
With that, preseason rankings, exhibitions, and hoops conversations in general are starting to pick up. The Bears open up their season on November 3rd in Foster Pavilion against the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, but recently got their first live on-court action against Grand Canyon in an exhibition, and will get one more warm-up, this time against a power conference in Indiana, on October 26th in Indianapolis.
With that, ESPN college basketball analyst recently tweeted out the first 2025 iteration of the preseason KenPom rankings. Baylor came in at 17th, the fourth-highest Big 12 school in the rankings.
An October Sunday tradition — KenPom’s preseason rankings are out! Houston opens the season at No. 1 … pic.twitter.com/nT1uRTiQhP
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) October 12, 2025
Houston, last year's national championship runner-up, tops the rankings and is the highest amongst Big 12 schools. Meanwhile, Texas Tech, fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance and led by Grant McCasland, one of the hottest coaching names in college basketball since taking over the Red Raiders from Chris Beard two years ago, is the second-highest Big 12 team at 12. This comes despite losing second-leading scorer Darrion Williams to newly minted Will Wade at NC State.
T.J. Otzelberger and his Iowa State program come in at 12th, while Tommy Lloyd and his Arizona Wildcats are the last Big 12 team ranked above the Bears at 15th.
Despite returning zero players from last year's squad that advanced to the Round of 32 and ended up losing to a Final Four team in Duke and a number overall draft pick, Cooper Flagg, expectations are high for Scott Drew's team in Waco. Most of those expectations are centered around the hopes of freshman five-star recruit Tounde Yessoufou, who projects very similarily to last year's freshman phenom VJ Edgecombe and has already began to draw rave reviews from NBA Draft scouts.
Yessoufou led the Bears in scoring against Grand Canyon with 21 points, along with five three-pointers. Also, in the new age of college basketball, Scott Drew dipped into the transfer portal and snagged Michael Rataj, who figures to be a major piece for this Bears squad after averaging over 16 points and seven rebounds at Oregon State last season
More From Baylor On SI:
- Top social media reactions to Baylor football's 2027 4-star commitment
- Baylor football beats Michigan, Penn State, others for athletic four-star prospect
- Bryce, Scott Drew shares biggest takeaways from Baylor basketball win vs. Grand Canyon
- Baylor basketball downs Grand Canyon in exhibition match, Yessoufou shines
- Baylor’s Tounde Yessoufou drawing early buzz ahead of 2025-26 season
Josh began covering Baylor athletics in July 2025. Before this, he previously wrote for Syracuse men's basketball and football at SI from 2022-24. As a former Division I defensive lineman at Prairie View, Josh is passionate about storytelling from a former athlete's perspective. When he's not covering Baylor, he enjoys traveling, listening to podcasts and music, and loves cooking a good meal.