Tanner Witt threw just one inning, but Texas baseball fans should take notice | Golden
Label me guilty for not seeing the late moments of the Texas baseball team’s 15-4 blowout of St. John’s on Tuesday and Tanner Witt’s short relief appearance that was both promising and important. Witt was part of an incredible sports Tuesday, though I admittedly missed his part.
There was so much going on.
More: Texas baseball is winning, but these next five games will be a serious early test | Golden
The Texas basketball team was busy holding on to a lead at Texas Tech in a real gut check. Rodney Terry and Co. passed the test. BYU earned its biggest win of the season at Kansas. Kentucky freshman Russ Sheppard put on a show at Mississippi State in a 91-89 thriller.
Plus, there Pappadeaux on the table.
The Texas baseball team had matters well in hand en route to its seventh win, so I concentrated my efforts on the hoops.
More: Former Texas star Peyton Stearns is a work in progress, bows out of the ATX Open | Bohls
Spring forward to Wednesday afternoon, and Kirk Bohls and I interviewed Longhorns coach David Pierce on our "On Second Thought" podcast, and during our conversation about Friday’s showdown with defending national champion LSU at the Astros Foundation Baseball Classic in Houston, I asked about Witt's comeback from Tommy John surgery.
Witt had started the second game of the season against San Diego, walking three and giving up three runs on 27 pitches. It wasn’t the same Witt, and Pierce over these last couple of weeks has played the long game with his starter. The college baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint, and the Horns have plenty of arms to use while Witt works his way back.
While I was watching hoops, Witt pitched a scoreless ninth against the Red Storm, retiring three hitters on 10 pitches in his first appearance in six games and second of the season.
“You had to stick around,” Pierce said of me missing out. “He threw an incredible inning. It looked like down angle, ball jumping, up to 93, 94 (mph). That was the most encouraging outing that he’s had.”
Pierce added that the training staff is monitoring Witt during his recovery period and will go from there, but it’s obvious the patient approach is the right approach.
“People look at a guy has a surgery and in 14 months he’s going to be ready and he’s going to be better,” he said. “Some guys are slower than others. Some guys it takes a little more time. Hopefully it’s starting to come together for him. He’s worked really hard for it.”
While Witt progresses, it will give others like Charlie Hurley and Cody Howard a chance to test themselves as the Horns are playing three top-10 teams over the next five days before opening conference play at Tech.
Pierce shares Augie Garrido’s philosophy on starting pitchers: You can never have too many.
Will a critical bad call cost Texas women's basketball?
No one else to blame: Texas women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer didn’t tear into the officials after the Longhorns lost the Big 12 regular-season title 71-70 at Oklahoma on Wednesday because he knows the Horns should have put the Sooners away.
More: No. 3 Texas Women can't hold off No. 20 Oklahoma as Sooners secure Big 12 title
Texas led 54-41 in the third quarter but scored only 16 points over the last 15 minutes of action. The traveling call on super freshman Madison Booker will stick in the Horns' craw for a long time because it sure did appear to be a foul. Booker came up with the rebound with the Horns up 70-68 with 15 seconds left and briefly lost control of the ball after making contact with a defender. What could have been a foul or a no-call turned into utter disaster for the Horns.
More: Texas basketball holds on for emotional win over Texas Tech
Oklahoma’s Lexy Keys hit a 3-pointer from the corner, and just like that, the Horns finish second in the league and are in danger of missing out on a No. 1 seed for the NCAAs.
Schaefer is steaming, but he knows he can’t allow this disappointment to be the story of Texas’ season. The Horns can still make plenty of noise down the stretch, starting with senior day against BYU on Saturday.
One concern has to be possible overreliance on guards Booker, Shay Holle and Shaylee Gonzales, who will be on short rest after logging 117 of a possible combined 120 minutes in Norman.
Court storming isn't going away
Bracing for the storm: Many fans and television executives are against banning court storming, but in the excitement of watching one of the most electrifying parts of an upset win, why tempt getting an athlete seriously hurt for a photo op?
Duke star Kyle Filipowski was injured during a court storming after an upset loss at Wake Forest, though he came back to produce nine points, 10 rebounds and six assists in an 84-59 rout of Louisville on Wednesday night. Earlier this season, Iowa star Caitlin Clark, the biggest name in college basketball, went down after colliding with a fan at Ohio State.
It isn't going away anytime soon. There are no obvious answers, but any financial penalties should be enormous, starting with $500,000. I don’t agree with Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne, who is saying schools should forfeit the game if a court storming happens, or with ESPN commentator Jay Bilas, who believes fans who storm the court should be arrested. Both are recipes for a riot.
Some administrators, such as Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, are taking a proactive approach, the only way to fix this issue. Schools in the league are fined when court storming happens, most recently at a Central Florida win over Kansas when the Knights were docked $25,000. Was it enough to deter future court storming? Doubtful, but it’s a start.
“It has been a part of the DNA of this industry, a part of the culture for a long period of time,” Yormark said this week on ESPN’s "Outside the Lines." “If we need to change behavior and change that culture and that’s to the benefit of student-athletes, I think it’s something we need to address and consider.”
The last thing anyone wants to see is a star player trampled over-boozed, overzealous fans at a sporting event.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas baseball is taking a patient approach with pitcher Tanner Witt
