Watch: Iowa student manager sinks half-court shot, mobbed by team
The Iowa Hawkeyes basketball team celebrated senior night with a big win over Northwestern on Monday. But it was a non-uniformed member of the team who made the biggest splash.
Student manager Jack Devlin got to take a half-court shot during the game's final media timeout. The senior missed the first attempt, but drilled the second shot and was immediately mobbed by his teammates.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘁 🔥🔥𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 🔥🔥🔥Every angle from Jack's half court shot ⤵️#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/und3qYHRVI
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) March 1, 2022
Devlin is part of the university's REACH (Realizing Educational and Career Hopes) program for students ages 18 to 25 years old with intellectual, cognitive and learning disabilities. He has been a manager with the Hawkeyes since 2018 and a campus favorite throughout his time in Iowa City.
"I knew as soon as that thing went in, the players were going to go nuts," Fran McCaffery said. "It's just a great feeling for all of us, for someone so special to us."
Iowa star Jordan Bohannon, the Big Ten's all-time leader in 3-pointers, heaped praise on Devlin — and all the team's student managers — after the game.
"What a cool memory for Jack Devlin," he said. "He's put in a lot of work behind the scenes, all of our student-managers do. Luke Slavens, Alex Dickey, Jack Devlin— they put in so many hours behind the scenes as managers and it goes unnoticed. They are honestly some of the hardest working people in college basketball. I'm glad I'm really good friends with them because I think they're going to do some extraordinary things when they are older and I want to make sure I have some good connections with them."
Devlin also hit a half-court shot during a practice in 2019 — and was mobbed by the team then.
"The first time I nailed a half-court shot was heartwarming just knowing the guys reacted like that and I get to rewatch it every now and again," he said.
Now Devlin has an even more dramatic shot he can rewatch.
Tonight was not the first time Jack Devlin hit a half-court shot with the cameras rolling.That came in 2019.@BTNJourney profiled the @IowaHoops team manager in 2020.Full feature ➡️ https://t.co/F1Y1jQKNph pic.twitter.com/PsxSrxlyM2
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) March 1, 2022
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Author Vanessa Van Edwards on charisma, improving relationships and power of cues
