A ref needed a replacement shoe after blowing out a sneaker during the Creighton-Akron game

During the first day of March Madness, a college basketball official had a mishap involving his sneakers.

While officiating an opening round matchup between Creighton and Akron, much like Zion Williamson did during his college basketball days in 2019, referee Kelly Pfeifer blew out one of his shoes. Even though this seems like a nightmare scenario for most, it ended up working out for everyone involved.

The referee was able to receive some help from standby official Adam Flore. Fortunately, the backup ref and Pfeifer happen to wear the same size sneakers and it was a quick fix:

Referee Kelly Pfeifer is absolutely wearing out his kicks, per @EvanWashburn pic.twitter.com/eE3dMWdd01

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 21, 2024

Even though only one of Pfeifer’s shoes was broken, Flore handed over both of his sneakers so that the referee had a matching pair.

That is excellent teamwork from the referees to get a quick solution to this strange problem.