On Monday night, the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers held Bluenanza, their annual season kick-off event at the school's Johnson City gym. Both the men's and women's basketball teams were on hand for the event, which featured your garden variety workouts, layup lines, dunk exhibitions, 3-pt shootouts, and of course the ever-popular "some random student wins tuition for a year" contest. Three lucky undergrads had their names drawn to take half-court shots, a la the kid in Cincinnati who sent Dick Vitale into a tizzy back in 1994. All three missed. Here's where it gets interesting.It was decided that the students would get one more chance to win. Only this time, players would take the shots. Considering the cost of an 18-credit year runs between $9,500-$14,000 (depending on in/out-of state), a really nice prize rested on the 47-foot shooting abilities of Buccaneer ballers. Junior-college transfer Devontavius Payne stepped up and drilled it, using the common running one-footer, albeit as a lefty. Classic form, bucket. The pressure was on for Senior guard T.J. Cromer, who followed in spectacular fashion, chucking a straight-up two-foot two-handed jumper for the win.(Was there a third shooter who missed? Is there someone on campus currently muttering under their breath about the unfairness of it all? There's no mention of it in the Johnson City Press news report, but we'll keep digging. The conspiracy runs deep and obviously 100 percent involves the next President of the United States.)Fans went bonkers, ETSU students Jeremiah Pearson and Garrett Pack got their bills paid, and the shots made the rounds, giving Payne and Cromer a little run in the media sun, so everyone went home happy. Well, almost everyone.
Advertisement
No Bucky, just no.Getting ready for Bluenanza #BuckyonthatBeat pic.twitter.com/9o1wggxLit
— ETSU WBB (@ETSU_WBB) October 21, 2016