UMass Student Stiffed $10K After Making Half-Court Shot

We’ve all seen those viral half-court shot videos. The ones where teams ask a fan to come out onto the court and, if they make the shot, they’ll receive some sort of prize.

On Wednesday, UMass welcomed a fan to do just that during a women’s basketball game. Noah Lee, a senior at the school, wound up draining the shot and winning the $10,000 prize.

That’s definitely a cool moment, but we’ve seen it before, so why would we write about this particular case? It’s what happened next (and over the next few days) that’s absolutely bonkers. It turns out Lee didn’t get that prize after all due to a replay review.

No, seriously.

UMass Student Denied $10K Half-Court Shot Prize on a Technicality

The contest called for Lee to make a lay-up, then a free throw, a 3-pointer, and a half-court shot in less than 30 seconds. As we said, he accomplished all of that, including the miraculous half-court heave before the shot clock expired.

According to 7News, the UMass Athletics Department came up to Lee afterward and told him the insurance partner, Odds On Promotions, that was providing the money wasn’t going to pay him because he was slightly over the half-court line when he made the shot.

The insurance company instead said they offered what Lee described to the outlet as “some consolation prizes of some tickets, a gift card, and a swag bag.” A swag bag? For all of that? Get out of here!

This is a terrible look for the insurance company. Why volunteer to contribute the prize money if you have no interest in actually awarding it? The replay doesn’t even suggest Lee was over the midway line either. If anything, he was directly on it by the time he released the ball.

Seeing the bad press that came with this, presumably, UMass realized it had to correct a mistake, even if it meant doing something they weren’t necessarily on the hook for. After all, this falls on the insurance company. On Friday, the school stepped up and gave the kid $10,000. The school’s AD wrote on X that if the insurance company doesn’t, they will.

Odds on Promotions still didn’t step up. Booooo! At least there was a happy ending for Lee, who did everything he was asked to do.