College basketball player blocks shot with his shoe. ‘A first in 25 years of coaching’

The Purdue Fort Wayne men’s basketball team defeated Southern Indiana 70-57 on Wednesday night, and there is one statistic of note in the game.

Mastodons guard Rasheed Bello had one blocked shot.

Admittedly, that sounds odd, but it was a blocked shot unlike any quite possibly in the history of basketball. That’s not an exaggeration.

Bello lost his shoe at one point and picked it up while still playing defense. The Screaming Eagles’ Jack Campion put up a shot over Bello, but he jumped and blocked the shot ... with his shoe.

“I’ve never seen that before in my life, and even the referee said he’s never seen it before,” University of Southern Indiana men’s basketball coach Stan Gouard told the Courier & Press’ Anthony Kristensen. “A first in my 25 years of coaching. Never saw it before.”

Kristensen’s story notes that Southern Indiana public address announcer Zane Clodfelter, who also works as a referee, said the play was legal. This would be a good spot to insert a “The More You Know” logo from the old NBC public-service announcements, right?

Here is the block, via Purdue Fort Wayne.

Max Parker, a sports anchor for 14 Sports, slowed down the play and you can see it was indeed the shoe that stopped the shot.

I’ve said it before, but this is why sports are great. You really never know what you’re going to see at any game.

Photographer MaCabe Brown of the Courier & Press got this great shot of the play.