Just a little more than seven minutes remained Saturday when Taz Sherman lined up a 3-pointer that rang true.
Moments later, the West Virginia guard found himself in open space again. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t look around to see if one of his teammates had a better look at the basket.
He just shot it, like he’s done hundreds of times before and like you would expect your top guy to do in crunch time.
Except this wasn’t the normal Taz Sherman. This was the version who felt a little winded, maybe a little out of sorts after having taken a complete week off from the game due to COVID-19 protocol.
“I was really excited for this game,” Sherman said after scoring 14 points on 5 of 13 shooting in the Mountaineers’ 71-68 victory against Kansas State inside the Coliseum. “Not being able to do anything for seven days, it was difficult. My life is so revolved around basketball to where you don’t know what to do anymore once you don’t have that.”
This was the Taz Sherman who barely practiced and spent more time shooting bad guys in Call of Duty than shooting a basketball recently.
COVID protocol forced him to remain in Morgantown last week, as WVU (12-2, 1-1 Big 12) fell on the road against Texas.
Sherman is from just outside of Houston. He had family and a former AAU coach planning to meet him and watch him play that game.
If that wasn’t disappointing enough, he was forced to watch the 74-59 loss to the Longhorns on TV, well, as much as he could stomach anyway.
“I already told our guys, I turned it off at halftime,” Sherman said. “I couldn’t watch it anymore.”
He tried to stay in shape as much as possible by running; running with no destination available is how he described it.
When the game of basketball is suddenly taken away, Sherman suddenly found more free time than he probably would ever want.
“I probably went through, like, three different shows in the span of a week,” he said. “It’s different. When your life is more than half the day revolved around basketball, and you don’t have it, my mind spins. I was watching shows, playing Call of Duty and sleeping. The rotation would repeat every day. It got pretty boring.”
What wasn’t boring was this game. Kansas State, already dealing with several of its own in COVID protocol, including head coach Bruce Weber and two of his assistants, found a way to get off to a hot start and a 17-point lead.
Sherman did not get off to a hot start. He didn’t take a shot until five minutes had passed, and that one came up short.
Trailing by 13 at the half, he made just 3 of 7 from the field and was off on three 3-point attempts.
But, then came the second half run. Kedrian Johnson played a key role, so did Gabe Osabuohien, who was also out last week due to COVID-19.
Sean McNeil couldn’t miss and tied his career high with 26 points, with 19 coming in the second half.
And then there were those shots from Sherman. That first 3-pointer broke a 53-53 tie. That second shot that he took with no hesitation, it went through, too, giving the Mountaineers a 59-53 lead with 6:16 remaining.
All of a sudden, disaster seemed to be averted with those two shots.
“Some people have it and some people don’t,” Sherman said. “Some people can fold under that pressure and some people can treat that clutch shot like a normal shot. Some people live for that moment. I live for that moment.”
The Mountaineers are still alive, too. A second straight loss, especially to a team in the situation K-State finds itself in, could have been disaster.
“He’s a special guy,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said of Sherman. “He makes those two big shots. Those are hard shots, and he makes them like, ‘O.K. guys, get on my back.”
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