Duke Student Hits Half-Court Shot, Wins $19K

One of the biggest rivalries in college basketball hits the hardwood on Saturday night with Duke hosting their arch-rival UNC Tar Heels.

So, it only makes sense that ESPN's College Gameday would be in town for the occasion and one lucky Duke student used the opportunity to net himself a cool $19,000.

Which probably doesn't even come close to covering a semester's tuition, but $19,000 is $19,000.

Sort of like its more-watched college football counterpart, the hoops version of Gameday has a segment where a student gets to do something for money (no, not that).

Everyone enjoys watching Kirk Herbstreit hold for some engineering student as he tries to kick a field goal for a major payday.

On the hoops side, they don't pay quite as much, and I think that's because, as you're about to see, you get 19 seconds to drill a shot from half-court.

This week, our protagonist is Raphael Lee, the pride of Cary, North Carolina, and a junior studying biology.

It took a couple of shots for Raphael to get dialed in but when he did, he drained a shot that earned him a cool almost-$20,000.

Congratulations to Raphael… but why $19,000?

I get the whole 19,000 agents, but that's such a weird way to pick a prize. Maybe just round up to $20,000 just to make everyone's life a little bit easier. I'm not a big math guy, so the more zeroes, the better; that's what I always say.

Also, God forbid they have mass layoffs at some point. Then everyone will be kind of bummed when they're shooting for $15,000 next season.

But, anyway, good for Raphael, that check will pay for a couple of biology books with enough money left over to rent a 4-by-4 apartment for a couple of months.

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.