Baylor men's basketball is 20 and one on the season.

There's three and the AP poll.

They're kind of good.

So naturally, we're gonna welcome in this guy Jared Butler, Baylor guard, to join the show.

This is our second Baylor player to join this show, so I want to ask you first before we get to the basketball stuff.

We still want to talk about competition, but something a little different.

We talked to Maceio Teague last month.

Listen to this.

I saw an article about the fact that you and Jared Butler like to go head to head and play, you know?

So I was wondering, I mean, obviously you guys are undefeated as teammates, but somebody has to be the winner and the loser in the head to head matchup with, you know?

So who's the champion amongst you, too?

The score is 11 and four right now, and I am winning.

Oh, yeah.

So I don't I don't know where the shirt thing came from, but I am definitely winning this series right now.

By a lot.

Is that a statement to your greatness of the game or his terrible this to the game.

No, I'm just I think that I'm definitely a top one player in the world.

Uh, I would say it's for me.

Mhm.

All right, Jared, what are your thoughts on this?

I So I love that he brought that up.

Um, he is winning right now.

He's winning.

It's like 11 to 4.

But the only it's the crazy thing is he's only gotten up in, like, in a span of like, um, a week.

We were on the road and we played, you know, for about, you know, all day, two days in a row.

And he won.

He got lucky.

And who knows?

The game runs anybody that plays, you know, and knows that.

And, you know, eventually the score is gonna be I'm gonna be back up sooner or later, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Well, believe me, we're gonna hold this as long as we can.

We're gonna continue to bring both of you back just to feed the, you know, rivalry.

Okay, so let's get into a little bit of last week for you guys.

You We love to throw out some highlights, and you had some big ones last week, starting with a monster dunk against Oklahoma State on Thursday.

We've got the footage here.

I just got to know what it feels like as they show this.

You know, walk me through this process of your up.

You know what's happening?

What's it feel like?

It feels kind of exhilarating.

Um, it's a lot of adrenaline going on right there, especially when you see the guy come over.

It's like, Oh, Lord, he's coming over.

I don't know what he's gonna do.

I don't know if he's gonna jump or not, But I'm all I'm thinking my hands, I'd better jump as high as I can and uh, that's it.

But you know, that's it.

Yeah, What makes you more professional than me is that you walked away from him afterwards.

I mean, I would have been right there just reminding him the entire time.

That wasn't your only great highlight, though.

We've also got this one.

The game tying layup two seconds left against number six West Virginia in a huge game on Tuesday, sent this game to overtime.

So what's better, a huge dunk or a game tying layup at the end?

I think the game tying layup.

Um, we had so much on the line.

My teammates trust me with the ball at the end of the game, and that's for a big hole championship right there.

And Big 12 Championship is our goal, and we needed that.

Lay up more than that dunk.

I think, in my opinion, how do you change your like approach?

You know, because he's in the air, he's gonna body you up, You're gonna get hit.

How do you manage to keep your balance and still get the shot off?

All I'm thinking about is one of the Big 12 championship.

I'm looking at him.

He's a phenomenal player and I'm going in there and I'm saying I'm not losing this battle because we gotta win And, um, I'm just waiting for him to go down as I stay in there and just finish the way up.

But yeah, that's that's a big 12 championship my mind all day.

I mean, you mentioned that it's Baylor's first ever Big 12 championship, also the first conference title since 19 50.

That's a very long time, no offense, but how does it feel to win the championship and run the table like this.

It feels amazing.

Um, coach during the staff, they've done such a great job with us.

And, um, I think it's just divinely oriented orientated how how we all came together.

Um, such a great group of guys.

Everybody's humble.

Everybody's wanting to win and sacrifice for the team.

And I love being around these guys.

So it's a special moment just being with the group of guys.

Um, as you can see, Baylor Nation was was amazing at night to, um But I enjoyed it.

And it means a lot to us.

And you come now, you guys, Last month, Mr Three Weeks, about three weeks due to covid your team struggle.

In the first few games back, you've talked a little bit about it, and I know you've been asked after Thursday's game you said You guys are only at about 75%.

So little real talk here.

How has Covid impacted the way that you guys are playing right now?

Yeah, college basketball is hard.

Um, emotionally, um, physically.

So taking three weeks off, like for a while.

For a while there, I thought I was like a regular student, just just going to class not having practice?

Um, just kind of not in the game mode, you know?

And in the college basketball, you have to be in that mode all the time with all the games.

And, um, but I think we're slowly getting back to it, and we're slowly getting our legs back underneath us, which is good and our defenses expanding, getting better a little bit day by day.

So, you know, I'm just excited to for us to be back to where we were before the covid.

You talked about how college basketball is hard.

Scott Drew actually said, The Big 12 is hard.

Before you guys lost to Kansas last week, That was very It was a little bit of foreshadowing, kind of odd, but you guys have one loss.

Gonzaga has no losses, Michigan still kind of creeping up.

There's teams that are going into this tournament and anything is possible.

How are you feeling?

With your chances going into the tournament, I'm feeling really good.

Um, I think our team is is headed in the right direction right now, especially after the adversity that we had all season.

And um, I think the confidence after winning the big 12.

Um, you know, the people were playing late in the season.

I think there's some really good teams that's gonna that's gonna battle test stuff.

I think that's gonna help us out going into the March Madness tournament.

So, um, you know, I'm really excited, man.

We've got great players.

Adam Flagler, John Flow Thumb Ba Well, we've got great players going to do you love to see it?

I'm glad that you guys won this season.

I was sick of Kansas taking over the Big 12 every single year.

So congratulations.

And thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks for joining us.

Keep us updated on the you know battles.

Let's go.

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