Ty Rogers rose to instant stardom with his heroic game-winning shot against Drake in this year’s NCAA Tournament, and the accolades continue to be heaped on him for that accomplishment.
Rogers’ shot has earned him an ESPY Award, the ESPN cable network’s annual sports awards show. The ESPY Awards, now in their 16th year, were taped in Los Angeles Wednesday night and will be televised at 8 p.m. Sunday. The show brings together the top names in sports and celebrates the best sports stories and accomplishments of the year.
Rogers won the ESPY Award for Best Finish. He has recounted the final seconds of that overtime win for Western Kentucky University on numerous occasions, including at both the Lyon County Chamber of Commerce annual dinner and the Princeton-Caldwell County Chamber of Commerce annual luncheon.
In an interview earlier this month, Rogers said, “It’s been unbelievable. I just thank God once again for all the blessings he’s given me. That one moment in life has done so much for me in just a (few) months — it’s given me opportunities to speak at different places and now this — it’s just been unbelievable.”
Rogers’ shot won the award because of an online vote from the public.
“What I think we all knew was that shot — or ‘the shot’ as many refer to it — would have a long shelf life and it would be a shelf life that would continue to propel WKU basketball forward on a national level,” WKU athletic director Wood Selig said Thursday. “We are continuing to see the positive impact of the shot.”
Before winning an ESPY on Wednesday, Rogers’ shot was named the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the NCAA Tournament in April.
The play earned WKU a $100,000 scholarship award in Rogers’ honor.
Other contenders for the ESPY Award were the final lap of the 2007 Pepsi 400, the overtime periods of the NBA first round Western Conference playoff series between the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs and the Pittsburgh Penguins’ triple-overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
The dramatic overtime shot in Tampa, Fla., gave the Hilltoppers a 101-99 overtime victory and their first NCAA Tournament win since 1995. WKU went on to beat San Diego in the second round of the tournament before it fell to UCLA in the Sweet 16.
Rogers averaged 6.4 points and 2.3 rebounds as a senior for WKU last season.
