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The biggest story connected to Monday's release of the AP poll was Baylor's No. 1 ranking, and for good reason. It was the program's first No. 1 ranking in school history and an improbable achievement regardless of whether you examine it from a historical perspective or with a shorter lens that dates only to November, when the Bears opened this college basketball season with exactly zero Top 25 votes.

So Baylor got all the headlines.

But it was a big day for Minnesota, too.

The same Gophers who went 2-16 in the Big Ten last season, and who were picked 12th or worse by most in the league this season, entered the AP poll for the first time under Richard Pitino. So when I subsequently asked the fourth-year coach how he was doing, his answer was predictable and perfect.

"Life is good," Pitino said. "When you win, life is good. People are nice to you again. They don't stare at you with the evil eye."

While recognizing that championships aren't won in January, that there's still a ways to go and that good seasons can turn at any moment, especially when three of the next four games are on the road, the following is true right now: Minnesota is among the nation's biggest surprises and best stories.

The Gophers are 15-2 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten. They have zero double-digit losses and zero losses to teams outside of KenPom's top 50. The only schools to beat them are Florida State and Michigan State. And they own four top-50 KenPom wins -- most recently victories over Purdue, Northwestern and Ohio State.

Richard Pitino started this season on the hot seat.

Now he's got a team ranked 24th.

Life is better this way.

"It's just a whole different vibe," Pitino said. "Just a whole different vibe."

It's an interesting profession, the coaching profession, in the way that every year men heading into make-or-break seasons are publicly identified and essentially told to flourish or go away.

Succeed now or you're fired!

Succeed now or relocate your family!

Succeed now or your career, as you know it, is over!

How many people outside of coaches publicly work under these conditions?

There can't be many -- mostly because most people work in anonymity but also because almost none of us work in a field where success and failure is so clearly defined with a record next to our name. As Bill Parcells once said, you are what your record says you are. And in the coaching profession, if your record says you're not good too many years in a row, well, that's how you end up on the hot seat.

Pitino went 18-15 two seasons ago. He went 8-23 last season.

He's never made the NCAA Tournament.

That's how he got on the hot seat.

And, yes, he felt it. And, yes, it's a hard existence.

"[Last season] was very difficult for a lot of reasons," Pitino said, and what he meant by that is this: Not only did the 34-year-old son of Hall of Famer Rick Pitino endure a 14-game losing streak that created an eight-win season, he did so during a time when Minnesota was between athletic directors.

"So it was hard to go through all that and then not have a boss, to not have any reassurance, to not have anybody to say, 'Calm down. Stay the course,'" Pitino said. "It was really uneasy. But then Mark Coyle got hired [as Minnesota's athletic director in May], and stability came. And it just comforted me."

Did Pitino expect a 15-2 start?

Probably not.

But he definitely expected improvement thanks to an improved roster. And now here we are -- with Minnesota carrying a national ranking and three-game winning streak into Wednesday's rematch with Michigan State at the Breslin Center.

"We still have a long way to go," Pitino told me. "I could have a bad two weeks and everybody will be [talking about the hot seat] again."

Which is true, of course. Like I said, it's an interesting profession, the coaching profession. You can get off the hot seat. But it never goes away. And you're always just a few losses from being placed right back on it.

But this is no time to dwell on that.

This is a time to focus on this: Minnesota is 15-2 and nationally ranked.

Needless to say, that guarantees nothing going forward.

But it sure beats the hell out of the alternative.