During the NBA 2020 All-Star weekend former University of Oklahoma and current Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield won the Mountain Dew 3-point contest. Yet, Hield hold a special connection to various members of the UTRGV Men’s Basketball coaching staff including Assistant Coach Luke Mackay. At Oklahoma Mackay was a graduate assistant and remembers his first interaction with Hield.
Probably in the gym, working in the gym, sometime late at night and he’s got his music cranked up to 100 as loud as he can before it breaks the speakers. He is in there singing and chasing his ball around and he’d spend hours just following the ball around in the gym; marveling at his ability to do that day in and day out.
Now Special Assistant to the Head Coach Byron Peak was also on the OU coaching staff as a graduate assistant. When asked if Hield winning the Mountain Dew 3-point contest came as a surprise Coach Peak expected it.
No, I am not surprised at all. Honestly, I knew, so we had 2 guys from Oklahoma him and Trae [Young] and I knew both of them were going to be trying to win it, and I thought both of them could win it. They could win it next year, the year after, however many times they get into it. But no, his [Buddy Hield] work ethic is higher than most guys and he is very, very competitive too so I knew he had a good shot at winning it.
Now UTRGV Head Coach Lew Hill was an Assistant Coach at Oklahoma for all four years of Hield’s colligate career. Yet, he uses “Buddy Stories” to teach lessons to the players of UTRGV Men’s Basketball.
I give them Buddy Stories. You know about how hard he worked, that he could couldn’t shoot when he first got on campus and that he just, you know, was a self-made player.
Buddy Hield will close out the season with the Sacramento Kings as they look to jump start a late season playoff push in the NBA Western Conference. For UTRGV Men’s Basketball their next game will be on the road Thursday February 27th against the Runners of CSU Bakersfield.
Reporter Luis Rubio
