Three seconds had gone off the clock before the first set of shooters heard the “GO” in this year’s NCAA 3-point shootout. Unfortunately for VCU fans, one of those shooters was senior Bradford Burgess.
Burgess struggled early, getting just 3 points out of his first two racks, but heated up at the top of the key before hitting a perfect rack in his second to last set of balls. When it was all said and done, the NCAA’s all-time consecutive starts leader had scored 13 points (getting 1 point for a regular ball, 2 for a “money ball”). Problem is…as bad as ESPN was at keeping time, they were worse as counting the score.
Burgess was credited for 9 makes early when he had actually barely made a dent in the score. Then after catching fire, he wasn’t credited at all, including no points received for the perfect rack of balls he finished off. ESPN score keepers credited Burgess for 12 points, one less than his actual score of 13, the same as Missouri guard Marcus Denmon who ESPN advanced to the second round.
The early clock start also came into play, as Burgess was unable to finish his final rack of balls, leaving the valuable “money ball” sitting on the rack as the buzzer sounded on what should have been his second to last shot.
Northwestern’s John Shurna went on to win the contest, besting Temple’s Juan Fernandez 21-20 in the final round. Shurna scored 15 in his first round, 20, then 21 to win it all.
