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“I’m 6’9, probably 280 right now. Not a lot of people step to me.”
By now, it’s more than likely that you’ve heard the above quote that was given by Samford Bulldogs head coach Scott Padgett following his team’s 81-72 loss to East Tennessee State on Thursday night. If you haven’t, a clip from Padgett’s press conference can be found below:
"Are you stepping to me right now?" TENSE moment tonight between official and Samford head coach, leading to some great postgame sound pic.twitter.com/kAUNdmxeb8
— Kane O'Neill (@WJHL_Kane) January 4, 2019
The quote was in reference to the antics of Karl Hess, a referee whose infamy within the college basketball world is well-known and widely catalogued. During the game, Hess confronted Padgett, causing the latter to give the earlier quote about Hess’s tenacity in “stepping to” a man of Padgett’s stature.
Here's Karl Hess going after Scott Padgett pic.twitter.com/hMAM9PgBTL
— Mid-Major Madness (@mid_madness) January 4, 2019
Now that both the moment and audio have gone viral, Samford has issued a Twitter challenge for its fans:
He's 6'9" and *probably* 280 and now he's on a shirt.
— Samford Men's Basketball (@SamfordMBB) January 4, 2019
280 retweets and we give these Scott Padgett quote t-shirts out at home on January 17th.
If you can't take the , get out of the Pete!#BetterEveryDay#AllForSAMford pic.twitter.com/01Jj1Hqv4u
That’s right. All they need are 280 retweets, and those shirts will be given out for their game against The Citadel on Jan. 17. Hopefully fans will rise to the occasion and spare a retweet, as these shirts absolutely rule and deserve to see the light of day.
Oh, and if they do make these, I would like one because, well, who doesn’t want a shirt that features a very tall head coach calling out the least popular referee in college hoops?