The finest 3-point shooter in NCAA history was in Charleston Saturday night.
West Liberty's Seger Bonifant has hit 359 of 679 treys in his career for a stunning 52.9 percent conversion rate. Stephen Sir of Northern Arizona currently holds the top spot at 46.9 percent. So Bonifant, a senior, has the record wrapped with ribbons and bows. In fact, heading into Saturday's Mountain East Conference tournament game, Bonifant could have missed his next 89 3-point attempts and STILL land the record.
Against Concord, Bonifant had 33 points.
And was outshined.
Concord guard Rob Reed had 34 points. He connected on a crazy 7 of 11 3-point attempts. He hit an insane game-winning basket after falling to the floor in the Mountain Lions' 92-90 double-overtime win against the nation's No. 1 team.
Also, in the process, Reed provided one of the most incredible stories to ever hit the tournament, whether in the current MEC form or in the old West Virginia Conference form.
See, after providing that winning bucket, Reed stood in the Civic Center's back hall signing autographs for eight little kids. All had smiles on their faces.
Unfortunately, though, when Reed was a child, smiles were rare. Your first memory might have been playing in the sand box. It might have been jumping into a swimming pool.
Reed's was of his 2-year-old brother dying after being scalded with boiling water. It was an incident that sent his mother to prison.
"It was kind of my first real memory," Reed said Saturday. "You get older and you don't remember much way back there, but ..."
But Reed saw his brother going through the horror. It was the first step of a tragic, woeful and, now, brave journey for the player.
"It doesn't haunt me," Reed said, "but I feel bad for the kid I was growing up. Now I have two kids and I don't ever want them to experience anything like that."
While his mother was in prison, Reed said his grandmother, Irena Reed, took over his care.
"My mom got out of prison when I was 10 or 11," Reed said. "I went to try and stay with her one summer, but I was so used to my grandmother, who was basically my mother. She raised me my whole life. That's just how it was. And it was really tough for her. She already had seven kids that were all adults. But she took me in and raised me. I wanted to get my life together for her."
There were switchback turns though.
"I dropped out of high school my junior year," Reed said. "Life had no direction. I didn't see any value in education. It seemed repetitive to me. I was always one of the badder kids at school, so hearing that a lot and, as a kid, being lazy and easily distracted, it made me wander away from school. I had to find what I really wanted to do with my life. My kids brought more vision."
Yes, Reed has two children, Robert and Lynnyah. He does not have a high school diploma, but, rather, a GED (General Educational Development) certificate. He earned that after gaining guidance via "Heroes Camp" in South Bend, Indiana.
"It's for inner-city youth," Reed said. "Pat Magley runs it and they draw you in with basketball. But when you get there, they sit you down for ministry. They talk to you about life, about sex, about race, about money, about real issues. A lot of kids have issues hurting them. The mother without the father. A lot of stuff like that.
"I went there and would just shoot [basketball] on the side. I started maturing at around 15 or 16. I would play pickup with some of the guys. One of the older guys, [former Ball State player] Cedric Moodie, I used to watch and rebound for him. He ended up playing overseas. I used to mimic what he'd do. I just kept working and was a really good pickup player.
"Well, one day I went to an open gym at a community college and they gave me a scholarship offer."
The offer was from Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, Michigan. But the GED wasn't there yet.
Then Reed started to fall through the proverbial cracks. He took a year off while his daughter was being born. He went back to school. When his son was born, he took two years off.
He worked at a machine shop. He went to a community college. He kept being drawn back to his kids though. Finally, Concord and coach Kent McBride entered the picture.
"I wanted to be a great father," he said. "My aunt knew about the opportunity to go to college. She said, 'You'd better pursue it.' My kids were potty trained, so she said she'd take them for two years - as long as I didn't fail a class or drop out. That's why I'm here."
He's trying to make Lynnyah and Robert proud. And both certainly would have been so Saturday night. Their daddy was the catalyst against the NCAA Division II's No. 1 team and one of the best shooters in college basketball history.
"Just two good players," Reed said. "Bonifant was the national player of the year - and might get it again. I wasn't focused on him though. I know when I'm on fire and playing good, my teammates feed off that."
Reed, now 26 years old, smiled when thinking of Saturday's game-winning shot. Dribbling on the left side, he fell to the floor trying to drive, gathered the ball, stepped through defenders and kissed the ball off the glass for the win.
"I know when I look back this is going to be really, really special, especially when I see that shot over and over on YouTube when I'm 40 years old," he laughed.
Reed will have much to look back on when he gets older. Admittedly, a lot won't be so joyful. But ...
"It all didn't break me so it definitely made me stronger," he said. "In the future I'll look back at everything that stood in my way, hurt me or held me back and use it to propel myself to new levels."
Rob Reed, you see, hasn't given up.
And it's apparent he won't.