So Baylor's pretty good, huh?

Well now.

That ended pretty quickly, didn't it?

For all the hoopla surrounding the St. Mary's program -- from the Australian media to their first Sweet 16 since 1959 to their big-mouthed big man -- the Gaels were a maelstrom of media for the last five days.

Seemingly every time you turned on the TV, you heard someone talking about St. Mary's. Every article you read seemed to be about a one-liner Omar Samhan dropped at a press conference. Everyone was talking about the Gaels.

Baylor looked pretty damn good last night.
(photo credit: Dallas Morning News)

And all it took was 13:17 to make everyone forget about that St. Mary's talk. At the 6:43 mark last night, LaceDarius Dunn caught an alley-oop on a fast break, capping a 6-0 spurt that had pushed the Baylor lead to 29-11.

Not exactly the start St. Mary's had hoped for.

That lead would grow to 46-17 at the half and to as big as 35 in the second half before St. Mary's finally started to play, although it was far too little to late.

While some will undoubtedly question whether St. Mary's was distracted, losing their focus in the bright lights and camera lenses that come with 15 minutes of fame, the bigger question coming out of this game may actually be "how good is Baylor?"

We've been on the Baylor bandwagon all season long.

I don't know if there are five trios better than the Bear's Tweety Carter, Lace Dunn, and Ekpe Udoh. I know there aren't five offenses that are better than Baylor's (they currently rank fourth in offensive efficiency). Baylor's 2-3 zone hybrid -- I saw hybrid because at times the zone looks more like a 1-3-1 -- is wreaking the havoc we expected all season from a team with that much length and athleticism.

That said, I don't think I've seen Baylor play better over a five minute stretch than they did for the entire the first half last night. Omar Samhan could not do anything on the offensive end of the floor as Ekpe Udoh and Josh Lomers gave Samhan fits. He missed seven of his first eight shots. Mickey McConnell and Matt Dellavedova may very well be the best shooting back court in the country, and they made just 2-12 from from three in the first half.

At the offensive end of the floor, they simply did whatever they wanted. Carter and Dunn were near unstoppable. Udoh, Quincy Acy, and Josh Lomers got open looks in and around the rim again and again. They were hitting threes, they were getting offensive rebounds, they weren't turning the ball over.

Baylor played like a team with something to prove.

They may have beaten the Wizards last night.

So while you can criticize St. Mary's all you want, make sure you keep in mind that this is a very good Baylor team that finally started clicking.