Stephen Curry gifts shoes, ‘swag’ to UMBC ahead of Sunday’s game (pics)
Stephen Curry clearly is among the countless college basketball fans left blown away by the UMBC Retrievers’ historic 74-54 upset of No. 1 seed Virginia Cavaliers, the first time a No. 16 seed has ever knocked off a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Golden State Warriors superstar expressed his admiration for the plucky Retrievers squad by gifting the team limited-release Under Armour sneakers for Sunday’s showdown with the Kansas State Wildcats.
The official Twitter account of the University of Maryland Baltimore County tweeted out a photograph of the player opening up their care packages courtesy of Curry.
Thanks to @StephenCurry30 for hooking @UMBC_MBB up with unreleased shoes and new swag for tonight’s game! #curry5 #RetrieverNation @UnderArmour @UMBCAthletics pic.twitter.com/M6rfPcl6Mz
— UMBC (@UMBC) March 18, 2018
While the tweet indicates the shoes were “unreleased,” the sneakers, as noted above, actually are currently in limited release, as this particular version of the Curry 5s are available for purchase through Wednesday, per ESPN.
UMBC junior guard Jairus Lyles also tweeted out a pic of the sneakers.
Special package from @StephenCurry30 !! Very appreciative. Let’s keep pushing family. #Curry5 #Nocap #UA pic.twitter.com/cTIzkVk5YI
— Jairus Lyles (@_jlyles) March 18, 2018
It merits noting that both UMBC and Curry have sponsorship/endorsement arrangements with Under Armour.
Unfortunately for the upstart Retrievers, their Cinderella story came to an end as quickly as it began, as UMBC lost to Kansas State Sunday by a score of 50-43. But the abrupt ending does not diminish what the Retrievers accomplished on Friday, as previous No. 16 seeds have gone 135 games without a victory since the NCCA Tourney expanded its field to 64 teams in 1985.
