The reason nothing ever came of "The Punch" was because if there was an investigation into what went down that day in Lubbock, it would look awful for Jordan Barncastle (the girl on the receiving end of the punch), Kristy Curry (Tech's head coach), the Texas Tech Lady Raiders, and the fanbase in general. Griner already looks bad in light of it, but if anyone looked a little deeper (i.e., Tech police, Tech administration), they would have found some pretty ugly things on their end as well.
There were some truly abhorrent things said to Griner's face that day, repeated by the players on the bench, and hurled at her from the stands. Not to mention the fact that Tech's players were mugging her on virtually every possession, and that Barncastle had elbowed her in the ribs the possession immediately preceding the punch. Barncastle then tried to hip-toss Griner and got socked in the face for it. The hip-toss alone was not deserving of a broken nose, but it was a culmination of the entire day's events.
I am by no means justifying Griner's actions. It was the poorest display of character she has ever exhibited. She herself wishes she had never done it and has gone above and beyond to keep her cool in incidents since that time. The incident in question certainly was not unprovoked. There is a reason the Big 12 only chose to suspend her 1 game. Mulkey added one more on top, hence why she sat two.
Additionally, all of that said, I think we can all agree that sometimes some people deserve to be punched in the face.
