The Purdue Boilermakers faced off against the Samford Bulldogs in their first game of the season on Monday. And the opening tip-off in the game produced an early candidate for the funniest moment of the season.
Purdue center Zach Edey has been one of the most dominant forces in all of college basketball for years now. Not too many teams can match his sheer size, especially on a jump ball.
Samford is one of those teams, so the Bulldogs decided to make a marketing ploy out of it ahead of the game. The team posted several tweets promoting the opening tip-off of the game, revealing that their shortest player, 5-foot-8 guard Dallas Graziani, would be jumping against Edey.
And now in the final episode, @dallas_graziani is ready 👊#BuckyBall | #AllforSAMford pic.twitter.com/Gw9aHZRpY3
— Samford Men's Basketball (@SamfordMBB) November 5, 2023
When it came time for the game to start, the opening jump-ball went as you would expect. Edey was easily able to give his team this first possession of the game, as Graziani didn’t even make an attempt at jumping for the ball.
The Samford Bulldogs sent out 5'8'' Dallas Graziani for the opening tip-off against Purdue star Zach Edey, who stands at 7'4''.
Safe to say that it went as you would expect…😂pic.twitter.com/ezCzUklGG4— The Comeback (@thecomeback) November 7, 2023
This very well could be the largest height disparity on a jump ball in NCAA history. And fans absolutely loved the moment, which they detailed on social media.
Incredible!
— Eric Mack (@likeyourposts) November 6, 2023
height over heart @BuckyBasketball https://t.co/hOE3nPw566
— Nate Oats Burner (@nate_oatsb) November 6, 2023
Highlight of my day https://t.co/jt0GZM7aMw
— Jack Gold (@JGoldHoops) November 6, 2023
Welcome back college basketball, we missed you. https://t.co/Kfjg9zHrSr
— (•_•) (@ThisNotCom) November 7, 2023
This is absolutely fantastic https://t.co/8MMiuezcQp
— Noah Porter (@noahcporter) November 7, 2023
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, they were equally as overmatched in the game as they were in this opening tip-off. Purdue would go on to defeat Samford 98-45 to secure its first win of the season.
[The Comeback on Twitter, Photo Credit: Big Ten Network]
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.