Baylor hopes Griner is back to usual self for NCAA tournament after suspension for punch

Baylor counts on Griner for NCAA tournament

BERKELEY, Calif. — Brittney Griner used to be known as the YouTube Girl for the way her impressive dunks as a high schooler went viral across the Internet.

There’s another video clip of Griner that has spread almost as quickly: The punch she threw at a Texas Tech player earlier this month that led to her suspension.

The start of her first NCAA tournament for Baylor on Saturday gives Griner a chance to rebuild her image as the 6-foot-8 shot-blocker who has the ability to transform her sport with an uncanny combination of size and athleticism.

“I would advise people not to judge me off that one incident,” Griner said Friday. “It will never happen again. I’ve learned from it. It will move along.”

The fourth-seeded Bears (23-9) take on 13th-seeded Fresno State (27-6) in a first-round game in the Memphis Regional. Fifth-seeded Georgetown (25-6) faces No. 12 seed Marist (26-7) in the other game at Haas Pavilion.

The focus in almost all of Baylor’s games this season has been on Griner, who became an Internet sensation with her dunks as a high school junior. She has only added to that her freshman year, becoming the seventh woman ever to dunk in a game and joining Candace Parker as the only players to do it twice in the same game.

That quickly got overshadowed by an ugly altercation against Texas Tech on March 3 that has been replayed almost as much as her dunks. Griner got tangled up battling for position with Jordan Barncastle near the basket. As a foul was called on Barncastle, Griner straightened up and took two steps toward Barncastle before throwing a right-hand punch.

Griner apologized in a written statement the following day and was suspended for two games. She returned in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament and admittedly wasn’t herself as the Bears went on to lose to Oklahoma 59-54.

“I think she’ll get back to being the player that she was prior to the incident,” coach Kim Mulkey said. “But I don’t know if it will be tomorrow. I don’t know when it will be. You can’t help but be a little bit bothered by all the media attention that the incident caused.”

Griner calmly answered all the questions she faced in the locker room before taking the court for practice. She said she’s learned from her mistake and hopes it will provide a lesson to younger players about controlling emotions.

While not defending her actions, Griner explained that it’s a sign of how competitive the women’s game has become.

“A lot of people look at it as the women’s sport isn’t as competitive as the boys, so when something happens it’s more shocking in the women’s sport,” Griner said. “Really it’s just as competitive as the boys, as the men’s sports. I think people are starting to see that more. It’s not the right way that it’s coming out. But people are starting to see it’s just as competitive as the boys are.”

Griner has long been viewed as a player who could transform women’s basketball. With a wingspan of 88 inches and the athleticism of someone much smaller, Griner is able to do things on the court that have never been done before by a woman.

Griner is averaging 18.8 points per game, to go along with 8.6 rebounds and 6.1 blocks. She has four dunks this season, including two in one game against Texas State. Only Parker with seven has dunked more in a college career.

“It’s not my goal to go out and try to change the game,” she said. “I don’t feel like I’m changing the game. I just feel like I’m adding onto it. A lot of people talk about the dunks. Lisa Leslie dunked, Candace Parker dunked, I’m just dunking a little bit different. I’m pretty sure somebody else younger is going to come along and try to do something different that I couldn’t do.”

The task of dealing with Griner falls to a Fresno State team that feels fortunate to be in the tournament after losing the WAC final 68-66 to Louisiana Tech to snap a 19-game winning streak.

Coach Adrian Wiggins went to desperate lengths to try to prepare his team for Griner, asking 6-foot-9 men’s assistant Jeff Reinert to help out.

“But he said his knees were hurting so we were out of luck,” Wiggins said.

In the first game, Georgetown is making its first tournament appearance in 17 years against a Marist team that has very good memories of coming to the Bay Area for the tournament.

Three years ago, the Red Foxes came into Stanford and knocked off fourth-seeded Ohio State and fifth-seeded Middle Tennessee to become just the third No. 13 seed ever to make it to the round of 16.

“It helped put us on the map,” coach Brian Giorgis said. “It’s helped with recruiting, it’s helped with name recognition. It’s helped with a lot of things. The only unfortunate thing is most people don’t take us lightly anymore. They know that we can be dangerous. Hopefully we’re dangerous tomorrow.”

The Hoyas won 16 straight games at one point this season and finished tied for second in the Big East. With no NCAA experience to draw upon, the Hoyas are looking for lessons learned from last year’s run to the quarterfinals of the WNIT.

“Probably the biggest thing they got out of the WNIT is one and done,” coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the NIT or the NCAA tournament, it’s lose and you go home. That’s something you can’t really teach a player. They can only be in that experience to understand that you have to put everything out on the floor right now, give everything we have because if we don’t, we’re done.”