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MORGANTOWN -- Sometimes in sports you have to take a step back before you can take a step forward and that isn't always the easiest lesson to learn.
You see it all the time on the field, a basketball player taking a step back to launch a 3-point shot; a running back to taking a step back to create some room to make a move that avoids being hit by a linebacker; a tennis player moving back to be able to return a 120 mile-an-hour serve.
It's really no different on the bench, and sometimes it isn't the easiest thing for a coach or manager to do.
Ask Randy Mazey.
A week ago the West Virginia baseball coach was faced with a difficult decision, one that demanded he call upon the experience of 30 years in the game to make.
His team was entering the Big 12 Tournament. It seemed to be well situated to reach the NCAA regionals, but as Mazey learned a year ago, you never really know. Two losses in the Big 12 Tournament might not sit well with the selection committee.
He lost the first game and was looking at a two and out situation, the kind that might force a younger, less experienced coach to maybe gamble and go with his ace pitcher, even though he didn't have full rest.
Certainly a win in the Big 12 Tournament would clinch a good regional spot and Derek Clark had been money in the bank as far as winning games went.
But Mazey decided to let the second guessers have their day.
In this era dominated by confrontational talk shows and social media where everyone believes he or she knows more than the man making the decision, you can stick your neck out pretty far in making a decision at the edge of a cliff.
But Mazey opted to be cautious with Clark. He held him out and WVU was eliminated in the Big 12 Tournament in two games.
Fans were upset but Mazey just let any criticism slip on by.
It's like my buddy Harper jokingly says in situations like this: "What are they going to do, fire me and send me to Morgantown to eke out a living?"
You make your mind up and go for it. And Mazey already was in Morgantown and, to boot, he already had announced his retirement at season's end, so he was playing with house money.
WVU was eliminated from the Big 12 Tournament quickly, but Mazey knew that the real prize is in the NCAA Tournament and he would need Clark to advance past the first round.
Clark admitted it was difficult to sit there and not pitch and Mazey, he joked about it some after being eliminated, saying "if you looked in the dugout around the fifth inning he was putting his spikes on and getting ready to go in."
But was he joking?
Clark, you see, is a kid with all heart and like most kids he knows only about today and doesn't worry about tomorrow. He'd have started that Big 12 game, he'd have been relieved, and he would have gladly come back again in this tournament.
Mazey pushed the right button.
This is his last year coaching the Mountaineers. Probably his last year coaching any baseball team and he is in no hurry to end his stay.
He's looking for a long NCAA run, a trip to a Super Regional and beyond.
He knows that begins with winning the first game.
"I don't know the odds like you guys, but I know it's hard to win a regional if you lose the first game," he told the media.
He also noted that winning the first game doesn't guarantee a long run, but it's better than losing it.
"I'd won the first game three times and never won the second," he said.
Now he gets the chance to try again because with Friday's 4-1 victory over Dallas Baptist behind Clark's four-hitter he faces either the No. 1 seed, host Arizona, or the No. 4 seed, Grand Canyon, at 10 p.m. on Saturday night.
Injuries to his team have been a plague this year and his pitching staff has lacked depth, so it was important that he again make the right choice in his second game starter if he is to move forward again. With that in mind, he was asked who would pitch, knowing that if Arizona had lost he might be able to gamble.
His answer was classic Mazey.
"We're starting Tyler Switalski. It doesn't matter if we're playing the Yankees," he said.
However, he might have a fight on his hands if the Yankees do show up.
Clark may want the ball again.