I had no idea what I was about to see this morning when I turned on the television shortly before 7. I was instructed by my 3 year old son to put on Scooby Doo. You know, the episode where they meet Sandy Duncan and deal with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
But before I could get to the cartoon, I saw the surreal incident that took place last night at Texas Tech when Baylor’s star freshman Brittney Griner punched Jordan Barncastle in the face after the two got tangled up in the lane. Barncastle was called for a foul on the play, but Griner then collected herself and delivered a wild right hand that connected.
Griner was hit with a flagrant foul and immediately ejected. Per NCAA rules, this prompted an automatic one-game suspension. She was suspended an additional game today by Baylor coach Kim Mulkey.
“I am very disappointed in the incident which happened during our basketball game last night at Texas Tech,’’ Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey said in a statement. “There is no place for those types of actions in sports. I do not condone that type of behavior in my program and have dealt with it accordingly.
I don’t believe this incident should define Brittney Griner – either as a person or as a player. Anyone who has been around her knows that she’s a great kid. Her actions last night were very uncharacteristic of her. Unfortunately, she let her emotions get the best of her, and that can’t happen. Brittney is a special young lady. She is great for our game, and I believe she will learn from this mistake and will become a better person moving forward.’’
Griner, a 6-foot-8 center who leads No. 14 Baylor in scoring (19.0), rebounding (8.7) and blocks (6.0), will miss Sunday’s game against No. 18 Texas and the team’s Big 12 tournament opener March 11 or 12. If you ask me, the severity of her actions warrants a suspension that at least spans the length of the conference tournament.
“I’d like to apologize to Jordan for my actions during last night’s game,’’ Griner said in a statement. “I also owe an apology to the Lady Raider team, my teammates and coaches, the fans and the game of women’s basketball. I let my emotions get the best of me and I am deeply sorry for my actions. I am committed to doing a better job of maintaining my composure in the future. I will grow from this and I am dedicated to setting an example to others of how to learn from personal mistakes.’’
Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma was out recruiting and was not aware of the incident until his daughter told him. He would eventually see the highlights on TV. Today he weighed in on the topic following practice.
“I still don’t know exactly what precipitated it,’’ Auriemma said. “I don’t know what was going on during the game between those two. So, in the heat of the moment, people should be surprised it doesn’t happen more often given the nature of the game. So the fact that it doesn’t happen very often, these kids are pretty disciplined and they restrain themselves pretty well. Not that that’s asking a lot. `Hey listen, don’t punch anybody.’ Even saying that, some stuff that goes on during the game you feel like punching somebody, but you can’t do it. One kid punched another kid … Stupid, irresponsible, immature, undisciplined. Every adjective you want to use. Accurate.
“What can you do about it? Every coach talks to their players about, `You can’t do that.’ Every coach talks to their players about, `You can’t leave the bench. Don’t be out there if something happens.’ There isn’t a coach in America that doesn’t do that.’’
Rich
