DALLAS – Coming off the shot of the season thus far, a halfcourt buzzer beater to knockoff Dream City Christian (Glendale, Arizona) 66-63 in the Duel in the Desert championship game on November 23, Prolific Prep (Napa, California) point guard Nimari Burnett was “even more excited” to play his first game as a Texas Tech signee in the Lonestar State.
“This is where I’ll be, so it feels good to be able to play in front of the fans,” said Burnett, who is ranked No. 15 in USA Today Sports’ Chosen 25. “These are the people that will be supporting me next year, so I wanted to give them a good show.”
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In two wins at the Thanksgiving Hoopfest, Burnett averaged 15 points for the No. 5 Crew.
“First, I’m just happy to win,” Burnett said. “I just want to set the tone for winning here in Texas because my plan is to do a lot of that next season. That halfcourt shot got a lot of the fans excited.”
Since the halfcourt heave went viral, Burnett said he’s added “over 3,000 followers” on social media.
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“It was pretty crazy all of the attention that came,” Burnett said. “We had fun with it in practice the next week and all of that, but now we’re moving on from it. Our goal is to go undefeated this season, and the way we’ll do that is to focus on every game in front of us. We have to because we have one of the toughest schedules in the country, but we have the team the depth to get it done.”
Follow Jason Jordan on Twitter: @JayJayUSATODAY
