ATLANTA—In the week leading up to the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Duke and Texas A&M are competing in the Battle for Bowl Week, a competition hosted by the bowl game that pits the Blue Devils and Aggies against one another in a variety of different events.
Saturday night, four members from each team had the chance to compete at halftime of an Atlanta Hawks game in a basketball skills challenge. Duke was represented by quarterback Anthony Boone, safety DeVon Edwards and wide receivers Jamison Crowder and Issac Blakeney. Texas A&M sent quarterback Johnny Manziel, running back Tra Carson and wide receivers Mike Evans and Malcome Kennedy.
As many of you probably saw on SportsCenter's Not Top 10, Johnny Football's prowess on the basketball court was suspect.
"Johnny Manziel runs up there, he goes up for the layup, and he missed," Duke defensive end Kenny Anunike said. "That kind of cost them some time, but they rallied back."
But in the end, this was a basketball competition between Duke and Texas A&M—the Blue Devils should have rolled to an easy victory, right? Turns out the Aggies actually came out on top, finishing the four-man relay in 22.3 seconds, a shade faster than Duke's time of 22.8
"We were going to win that thing," Anunike said. "At first the lady said that we won, but I guess somebody back there from Texas A&M had something to do with that and they changed the tally so they won, but it's all good."
Although Texas A&M took the competition and a 3-1 lead in the Battle for Bowl Week, members of both teams will remember the night for Manziel's laughable gaffe.
"I definitely enjoyed watching Johnny blow that layup the other night," said Texas A&M cornerback Deshazor Everett, who cited the moment as his favorite of bowl week thus far.
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