With 13:30 remaining in the No. 2 Baylor home win by 84-72 over Auburn on Saturday, Matthew Mayer – the popular, flabby, reserved guy – flew onto the track for a dip that made ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla scream, “O my God!”
The Baylor bank also exploded.
For Mayer, however, the dunk also helped him gain an advantage over fellow American teammate and contender Jared Butler – who lost the 3-point ball that led to Mayer’s flush – in his competition to see who gets the most dumps in this year.
“O MY GOD!” 😲# SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/EZy9asV3RB
– SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 30, 2021
“They weren’t really fighting boxing and I just went in and got the dunk,” said Mayer, who scored 13 points, during the post-game conference call. “Me and [Butler] have a competition to see who gets the most dunk, and he thinks he’ll get more than me. I mean, he plays more minutes than I do, but come on. [After that dunk], he’s like, ‘OK, you beat me now, you beat me now.’ I was like, ‘I’m already beating you.’ That was [our] conversation running around the court. “
For a 16-0 Baylor team that is now 41-3 in its last 44 games since last season, the celebration also showed the bond that helped this group enter the final stretch of the 2020-21 season as a serious candidate to win the national title.
“It was crazy,” Baylor’s Adam Flagler said of the frenzy that followed Mayer’s dunk in the second half of Saturday’s victory. “We were all super excited for him. He’s a great talent and he showed that a little bit tonight.”
Mayer is also an example of the depth that Baylor has. He played more than 20 minutes just once this season because of the talent ahead of him on the list – but he still made his mark.
“I know they count only as two points, one dunk, but the momentum of the dunk, the energy … it permeates the whole team,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew. “It helps you run. It just changes the dynamics of a game.”