LU player in March Madness talks about being subbed in by ref in viral video

During the Liberty University Flames’ matchup against Oregon in the first round of the NCAA National Basketball Championships, sophomore guard JC Shirer Jr. made unexpected waves on social media because of the thoughtful actions of a game referee.

With less than a minute left in the March 21 contest, referee Roger Ayers stopped the clock on the pretense of cleaning a wet spot, allowing Shirer to substitute in and play in his first March Madness game.

“It was such a cool moment. Mr. Roger (Ayers) has been around the Liberty program for a little while. For him to be the ref who let me into the game, it was really cool,” Shirer said.

While he originally expected little publicity to come out of the moment, Shirer said he began seeing the video trend on social media.

“I did not expect the video to go viral at all. I got sent the video after the game, and it already had 15,000 likes. I woke up the next morning, and it got over 3 million views.” Over the next few days, the video continued to gain traction and, as of Thursday afternoon, it had raked in over 5 million views on the CBS Sports Instagram post alone, with over 194,000 likes.

 

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Shirer said he was initially “a little bit mad and frustrated about it because of personal pride,” but he quickly decided to use the opportunity to share the love of Christ with anyone he could.

“The Lord shifted my perspective on it. After I saw it blowing up and the platform it had, I decided, and the Lord gave me this idea, to go on every platform that posted it and comment under it, ‘Hey that was me. The ref was great for that. Jesus Christ is the way to life, just in case you all are wondering.’”

He added the same comment under every post he came across.

“I just thought it was really cool that the Lord shifted my perspective from miring in my own circumstance to using it for His glory for (millions of) more people to see,” Shirer added. “It was a cool moment. I got to play in March Madness, which most people don’t do. I’m really glad the Lord put me in that position to use it to glorify Him.”

Liberty Men’s Basketball concluded the 2024-25 campaign with an impressive 28-7 record, including 13-5 in CUSA competition, and earning both the CUSA regular season and conference championship titles. The Flames advanced to their first NCAA Tournament since 2021 as a No.12 seed before falling to the No. 5 Ducks in the first round.