Miami sophomore guard Nijel Pack ran into quite a conundrum during Saturday night’s 2023 men’s NCAA tournament Final Four bout with Connecticut.
During the game’s second half, Pack’s shoe fell apart, and the team wasn’t able to locate him a replacement pair fast enough to quickly get him back out on the court.
The first pair the team found him didn’t fit, so Pack had to chill on the bench until someone on Miami’s staff could locate him the proper pair.
As you can probably guess, having one of your star players lose their shoes in the middle of a Final Four game is not ideal!
"We have Shoegate for the Miami Hurricanes"
Nijel Pack broke his shoes and did not have a backup pair 😳#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/5AJ3vjLUrK
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 2, 2023
CBS reported that Nijel Pack, Miami's key point guard, broke his shoes and did not have a backup pair. He's waiting on the bench for a replacement. How could this happen in such a big game?
Maybe Miami needs an NIL shoe deal.
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) April 2, 2023
Thankfully for Pack and Miami, someone on the team’s staff hustled to make sure he eventually got the right fit.
Shoe guy is the real MVP 😤 pic.twitter.com/GEGCZuq47g
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) April 2, 2023
"Shoegate" trying to be resolved pic.twitter.com/c0cRkq9DIe
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) April 2, 2023
Pack wound up getting a new pair of shoes and returned to the game. While it seems absolutely bizarre for a college basketball player in such a major moment to not have a backup pair of shoes to wear, we guess stranger things have happened.
At the very least, any sort of comeback would’ve had quite the narrative segue if Pack played a major role.
Please have Nijel Pack go off to make this comeback so we can write about the Cinderella slippers.
— Caroline Darney (@cwdarney) April 2, 2023
