WACO, Texas — If you watch Episode 5 of ESPN+'s Our Time: Baylor Basketball, there are likely two different types of smiles you'll get.
I loved how little of the show was tied up in games with the teams. The two bigger storylines in this episode were Nicki Collen visiting her kids and husband in Atlanta and Adam Flagler pursuing a career in medicine.
Almost immediately, we join Collen at the airport in Dallas after a game, as the Bears were going in to an open day. It's 5:40 a.m. and she's flying across the country to visit her family in Atlanta with what little time she's able to scrape together during the season.
But when she gets to her daughter's cheer competition in Georgia, you can't help but notice her face light up. It's a deeper look in to what Collen talked about in an earlier episode with how she deals with being so far away from her family.
Having been in Indianapolis for 20 straight days in March and April, away from my now-fiancée, I can't imagine how she deals with being away from her kids for, as she describes in this latest episode, "Usually a month at a time."
After that, there is a look at the win over then-No. 7 Iowa State that's so quick, it's as if there weren't a game in the show for the women's team.
But, the team's reaction to the shoes they got after the game was really cool, with Collen coming in with afterward excited to share new Jordan's with her team.
There's a short description of Scott Drew as a coach, whether what we see is what he really is and it shows several people confirming what others have told us before, that he's genuinely him and genuinely loves his players.
But the second smile comes when the crew shadows Adam Flagler to Baylor Scott & White-Hillcrest, where he shadows one of the hospital's doctors.
Shadow hours are vital for someone vying for a spot in medical school, as my younger brother could attest to during his ongoing admissions process. Flagler described that he wants to chase this dream and knows he needs to take advantage of opportunities to shadow, even during the hustle that is the season.
Leaving that sequence, I couldn't help but cheer for Flagler and hope he makes it happen when college comes to an end.
My one knock on this episode: I don't think the zoo scene added anything. It showed us Jeremy Sochan's personality, more than just from 10 seconds in learning about Flo Thamba's photography passion. But there was no real rhyme or reason for the opening scene with Sochan and Matthew Mayer at the Cameron Park Zoo, to me.
All-in-all, I think this episode did the best job of showcasing some of the important figures on both teams as human beings away from basketball.
Our Time: Baylor Basketball is available on ESPN+ with new episodes coming out every Thursday.