WACO -- Tweety Carter and LaceDarius Dunn knew before even playing a game this season that Baylor had a much better team than the Big 12 coaches expected.
They have already proven that, and have a chance to accomplish even more since they are still playing.
"Being picked 10th, we took that as disrespect," Dunn said Monday. "We knew we're a better team than 10th. ... We knew we had to come out and prove a point."
The Bears (27-7) have made it to the NCAA round of 16, joining Kansas State as the only Big 12 teams still left with a chance to play for the national championship.
What about Kansas, the preseason Big 12 favorite by the coaches and the No. 1 overall NCAA seed? The Jayhawks have already been eliminated along with Texas, the league coaches' preseason No. 2 which started 17-0 and reached No. 1 in the AP poll in mid-January.
"I don't play this game to worry about what anybody else thinks. As long as this family here is tight, I'm all right," said Carter, the point guard and one of only two Baylor seniors. "At the same time, it comes up in the back of your mind, you've got to come out and show them why we're better than 10th."
In an NCAA tournament filled with upsets, most notably Kansas' second-round loss to Northern Iowa, Baylor has remained unscathed as the No. 3 seed in the South Regional.
After defeating Sam Houston State and 11th-seeded Old Dominion in New Orleans, the Bears will be even closer to home for their next game. They play in Houston on Friday night against No. 10 Saint Mary's (28-5), which advanced with victories over Richmond and Villanova.
While Dunn (19.4 points a game) and Carter (15.1 points, 6 rebounds) have excelled, the Bears got a boost from the addition of 6-foot-10, 240-pound Ekpe Udoh, who had to sit out last season after transferring from Michigan.
Udoh provided an inside presence that had been missing, setting a Big 12 record with 128 blocked shots while contributing 13.9 points and 9.7 rebounds a game.
"Last summer, just to be around each other and get the feel for each other playing pickup games, that's where it all started," Dunn said. "Everybody got on the same page and agreed on the same thing and had the same goal. That really got us going and got us where we are now."