Douglass basketball wears LaMelo Ball shoes in TSSAA state tournament win: 'You look good; you play good'
MURFREESBORO – Douglass defeated York Institute 81-53 at Murphy Center in the BlueCross Boys basketball state championships on Thursday in the Class 2A quarterfinals.
And as good as the Red Devils (27-8) looked playing, they wanted to match that with their shoes on the court, too.
"You look good; you play good," said senior Tyler Johnson.
It's why Douglass decided to wear LaMelo Ball's signature Puma shoe, the MB.02 Rick and Morty colorway during the state tournament. The Red Devils added fashion is important to them, so which shoes they would wear while dominating on the court during the state tournament was just as important as playing in the tournament itself.
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"We had to hurry up and find some shoes," said sophomore guard, Taquez Butler. "In Memphis, we couldn't find none. Our coach just game in, took a picture at the store and asked did we want these. We said yeah, they were LaMelo's and they were hard."
Douglass trailed just one time in the first quarter against York as it put together a strong performance in its first state tournament appearance since 2018 — it lost in the state championship to Loretto.
Butler led all scorers in the game with 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting. Jarmon Britton, also a sophomore, added 16 points and nine rebounds.
The Red Devils looked the part on Thursday and they plan on keeping their style on the court with their play and flashy shoes.
"Our team is big on fashion and looking good," Douglass coach Gregory Williams said. "They love it; I love it."
Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on Twitter @wynstonw__.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: LaMelo Ball shoes worn by Douglass basketball at TSSAA tournament
