Engineering the Play: Doughty goes viral with 'ridiculous' play

Engineering the Play: Doughty goes viral with 'ridiculous' playEngineering the Play: Doughty goes viral with 'ridiculous' play

AUBURN, Ala. – Samir Doughty's teammates attempted to describe his crossover, step-back 3-pointer he made in Auburn's win over Colgate on Tuesday. 

"Shocking," one said. 

"Disrespectful," added another. 

Words like "ridiculous," "amazing" and "awe" were also used. 

Doughty scored a game-high 20 points, but those three points turned him from a star in Auburn Arena that night into a viral star. The highlight went up on ESPN's twitter account shortly after it happened, and later that night, it was the No. 1 play on the Sportscenter Top 10. Bleacher Report posted video of the play the next day. 

"Believe it or not, I didn't even see it on the Top 10," Doughty said. "It was good seeing it on Bleacher Report. A lot of people mentioned me and stuff like that, just saying how cool of a shot it was. It's definitely good to get that recognition for something like that. 

"That's not going to win us basketball games, but it definitely was a cool part to that day." 

The play itself can be broken up into two parts – the crossover and then the 3. One wouldn't have happened without the other. 

Up 10-2 early, it started out as just another possession for Auburn. Doughty had the ball and was dribbling down the court looking to make something happen. He initially went right, but when he crossed back left between his legs, the defender guarding him fell down. 

"I originally wasn't going to shoot the ball until I saw him fall," the senior said. 

So Doughty took one dribble and jumped back behind the 3-point circle where he launched the shot. He was so confident that it was going down that he turned around and started walking the other direction before the shot ever reached the basket. Sure enough, the ball touched nothing but net on its way through. 

"I knew he was going to turn around," teammate J'Von McCormick said. "As soon as the guy fell, I knew he was going to shoot it, and I knew once it left his hands, it was going in. I knew he was going to turn around because he always does that stuff in pick-up games. It's nothing new."

"I just saw the dude fall and then him turn around," added freshman Devan Cambridge. "That was the best part to me."

"I started laughing," said Jamal Johnson, who was sitting on the bench at the time. "He's from Philly, so he does plays like that all the time. He's always doing fancy crossovers or look-away passes, so I just started laughing because I knew the shot was going to go in."

Doughty, a native of Philadelphia, has been crossing guys over and making plays like that since he could dribble a basketball. There's a certain swagger or confidence about his game that makes it look easy, but what he pulled off Tuesday was new even for him. 

"In the summertime, I was shooting the ball and turning around before it was going in all the time," Doughty said. "That's nothing new to me. But I've never done that in a game. I always wondered would I make it. I didn't want to have a moment like Nick Young had. It felt good releasing in my hands, and I was 95 percent sure it was going to go in."

Some of his teammates didn't know that Doughty turned around before the shot went in until after the game when they saw the highlight on their phone or on TV. 

"I saw it on Sportscenter later," freshman Babatunde Akingbola said. "I was like, 'Did he do that? Dang. That's crazy.'"

Yes, he did. And knowing Doughty, he'll probably do it again one day. 

"That's how he is," Johnson said. "He's always got that energetic swagger about him."