Baylor forward Johnathan Motley (5) extends to defend against a shot from Kansas forward Perry Ellis (34) during the first half, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 at Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.

These aren’t your older brother’s Baylor Bears. You remember them. Long, tall, sometimes spectacular big men who at other times passively sat back in a passive 2-3 zone as Kansas picked them apart.

You remember the games in which they would fall way behind Kansas and showed no urgency in getting after it with presses or other means to shake things up, instead just fading away.

Now forget them.

Young coaches do improve and that can mean doing a better job of vetting the desire in players they decide to recruit, which in turn leads to a more solid winning culture passed down from veterans to younger players, etc.

Scott Drew, in his 14th year at Baylor, has taken two teams to the Elite Eight, and this is his best team.

The Bears made it to No. 1 in the Associated Press college basketball poll released Jan. 9, so naturally the curse of the new No. 1 dictated that they suffered their first and to-date only loss of the season, by 21 points at West Virginia. So ended the school’s first week atop the college basketball world.

No other school had gone from unranked to No. 1 as swiftly as Baylor did by reaching the top in Week 9 of the poll. That happens when a team is greater than the sum of its parts and the parts on this team are good, led by do-it-all, 6-foot-10 forward Johnathan Motley and stretching from clutch point guard Manu Lecomte to 7-foot center Jo Lual-Acuil.

Drew mixes defenses, playing more man-to-man than in the past.

Per Kenpom.com efficiency rankings Baylor is fifth in the nation in defense, 20th in offense, compared to KU’s rankings of 30th in defense and fifth in offense.

As for an overall strength rating, kenpom.com has Baylor No. 7 in the nation with a computer-generated number of 27.10 and has Kansas No. 8 at 27.09, the closest of any two schools to each other.

The Associated Press poll has Baylor No. 2 in the nation with 1,504 votes, Kansas No. 3 with 1,503, again, the closest of any two teams in the rankings.

They share first place in the Big 12 with 7-1 records, playing each of the other conference teams once.

So let’s break the virtual statistical tie between the tips that will tip it off today at 8 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse by using comparative scores.

In its eight Big 12 games, Kansas has a margin of plus-43. Baylor also has a plus-43 margin.

KU’s 50-game Allen Fieldhouse winning streak makes Kansas the six-point favorite in Las Vegas. The Bears are 0-14 in the fieldhouse. But remember, these aren’t your older brother’s Baylor Bears.