Sydney Wiese To Compete In College Three-Point Shootout Tonight On ESPN

On Thursday night, Oregon State star Sydney Wiese will don her “white, black and orange” uniform one more time, to represent the Beavers at the State Farm College Slam Dunk & Three-Point Championships. The competition will take place on the campus of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona and will be televised nationally on ESPN, starting at 7:00 PM PT.

Wiese will be stacked up against some serious competition, including Baylor’s Alexis Jones, DePaul’s Jessica January, Kansas State’s Kindred Wesemann, Maryland’s Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, Michigan State’s Tori Jankoska, Syracuse’s Alexis Peterson and Washington’s Heather Corral. However, Wiese could possibly be considered the “hometown favorite” (as she’s from Phoenix) and is coming off a season in which he shot a stunning 42.6% from behind the arc, in addition to becoming the Pac-12 all-time leader in three pointers with 373 makes.

Contrary to popular belief, Wiese will not be partaking in the college dunk contest, which will feature eight players from across the college ranks, including Wisconsin’s Vitto Brown and the “dark horse” dunker in Southeast Missouri State’s Antonius Cleveland. Cleveland was selected to the field by winning a fan voting competition, in which he garnered over 393,000 votes.

On the men’s side of the three-point competition, the Pac-12 is well-represented by Arizona State’s Torian Graham and UCLA’s Bryce Alford, in another impressive field of eight competitors. However, like Wiese, another local favorite in this grouping could be Grand Canyon’s own DeWayne Russell, who averaged 21.1 points per game in his senior campaign, while also knocking down 52 three-pointers.

I’ve made some picks for tonight’s competition to add some intrigue to this event for us here at BTD. Feel free to chip in your own thoughts about who might win in the comments below!

My Picks

Men’s Three-Point Contest: Naz Mitrou-Long (Iowa State)

Women’s Three-Point Contest: Sydney Wiese (Oregon State)

Dunk Contest: A.J. Merriweather (East Tennessee State)