After having one of the best seasons in Baylor basketball’s history last year, Jared Butler has been significantly better as a junior. Barring unbelievable stupidity from the voters, he should be the first Baylor player to win Big 12 Player of the Year and be named a First Team All-American.
To make the leap from one of the Big 12’s best players to the country’s best two-way player, Butler had to get better defensively. He wasn’t bad on that end, but when he spoke with over 20 teams during the NBA Draft process last year, he tells me that some teams, “asked about staying on the ball, and if they (Baylor’s staff) hid me.