Primetime at the Palace Rundown
After introducing the women’s and men’s teams, as well as hearing from both head coaches, the action got off to a fast start.
Five students shot for $10,000 from halfcourt. However, before shooting, Coach Cal said he’d match the $10K for each basket made. The first person up was Hank Pruitt, and he swished the shot to win $20,000. Coach Cal’s wallet almost took another hit as the second student barely missed. The other three did not come close.
Up next, the dunk contest took center stage. There were nice dunks by Jordan Smith Jr., Abdou Toure, Jeremiah Wilkinson, Miikka Muurinen and JJ Andrews, but crowd favorite Billy Richmond III was the winner. The Billy GOAT first threw down a dunk, jumping from the free throw line. Later, Richmond, with the fans chanting his name and clapping in unison, slammed home a reverse windmill and won with 73.5% of the fan vote.
Davion Thompson won the 3-point shooting contest with 21 points. Wilkinson and Toure were second with 16 points.
Fans got a brief look at the team in a 10-minute scrimmage. The white team beat the red team, 32-28.
Then came the highlight of the evening, when the fans “stormed” the court to get photos and autographs of the Razorbacks.
