MORGANTOWN — Early Tuesday morning, West Virginia guard Taz Sherman posted a thumb-up emoji to his official Twitter account, a possible sign that the high-scoring senior is doing fine after taking a blow to the head on Monday against Baylor.
Sherman scored a career-high 29 points in the Mountaineers’ 81-77 loss to the eighth-ranked Bears, but was knocked out of the game with 3:42 remaining after taking an inadvertent shot to the face from Baylor freshman forward Jeremy Sochan.
No call from the referees was made on the play, which was not reviewed, and Sherman was eventually helped to the sideline and later taken back to the locker room.
“I’m not sure what to say. We got a guy laying there with a concussion,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said on his postgame radio show. “He’s dribbling the ball and he gets a concussion and they don’t even stop the play.”
It was Sherman’s best game since returning from COVID-19 protocol in early January.
In recent weeks, Huggins has said Sherman has played while also trying to recoup strength and weight that was lost while sitting out.
Sherman appeared to be back to the level of play that saw him become the leading scorer in the Big 12 for a brief time in December. He was 6 of 11 from 3-point range against Baylor, the most threes he’s had in a game at WVU.
It came to a disappointing end late in the game, when Sherman tried to drive to his right and lowered his frame in an attempt to get around Sochan.
The Baylor forward tried to slide over to keep up with Sherman, and Sochan’s right arm came down and made contact with Sherman’s head, face and jaw.
If Sherman did suffer a concussion, the Big 12’s policy drafted in 2015 states that WVU’s medical staff will have the final say on if the guard is healthy enough to return to practice and play in games.
That would be determined after Sherman is properly monitored and put through a series of tests.
WVU doesn’t play again until 2 p.m. Saturday, when it hosts No. 14 Texas Tech.
The non-call on Sherman was far from the only moment that had Huggins infuriated with how the game was officiated.
Baylor came away with a 36-26 rebounding advantage, with 17 of the Bears’ rebounds coming on the offensive end.
Baylor also had a commanding 42-20 edge in points in the paint and a 24-2 advantage in second-chance points.
“I could show you why we didn’t rebound it,” Huggins said after the game. “If you want to come into the office and look at some clips, I can show you why we didn’t rebound it. Obviously I can see things that you don’t see until way after the fact. I’ll leave it at that so I don’t get into trouble.”
During his 11-minute post-game press conference, Huggins mentioned several times there were reasons why the Mountaineers were out-muscled around the rim, but stopped at calling out the referees personally to avoid fines or penalties.
“Go back and look at some of the clips, and then you can make your own decision as to why we got beat on the boards,” Huggins said. “It’s really not hard to find.”
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