Ranking the 10 best dunks of this year's college basketball season
The Dagger continues its season-in-review series this week with a look back at the best dunks of the 2013-14 college basketball season. Let us know which ones we missed via Twitter or in the comments below.
No. 1 Wichita State guard Tekele Cotton's poster dunk
Comment: Illinois State defender John Jones learned the hard way not to rotate late on help defense. The 6-foot-2 Cotton threw down a dunk so vicious over Jones that it even had his coach raving about it. "Oh man, that was quite a play," Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall told reporters after the game. "Tremendous. Tekele’s just a tremendous athlete and it seemed like he never stopped rising."
No. 2 Wagner's Dwaun Anderson flushes off-the-glass alley-oop
Comment: The highlight of Wagner's Jan. 11 victory over fellow NEC contender LIU Brooklyn was this emphatic off-the-glass alley-oop from sophomore senior Latif Rivers to sophomore Dwaun Anderson. Two Wagner players actually had a chance to finish the dunk, but Anderson skies over Marcus Burton to complete the spectacular play.
No. 3 Michael Qualls' game-winning tip dunk at the buzzer
Comment: Nobody delivered a more timely dunk this season than Qualls. Needing a basket to prevent double overtime after Kentucky's James Young had tied the game with a 3-pointer seconds earlier, Arkansas junior Rashad Madden fired from the right corner with two seconds to go. Madden's shot hit the back iron and bounced high in the air, but Qualls snuck in from the left wing, corralled the miss and slammed home a thunderous two-handed put-back dunk to give Arkansas an 87-85 victory.
No. 4 Nevada's Deonte Burton annihilates the rim
Comment: It's no accident NBA scouts consider Nevada's Deonte Burton perhaps the most athletic point guard prospect in this June's draft class. What other point guard could throw down a dunk as filthy as the one the 6-foot-1 Burton delivered in March over Boise State's Ryan Watkins?
No. 5 Kentucky's James Young delivers the NCAA tournament's best dunk
Comment: The national title was starting to slip away from Kentucky midway through the second half when James Young reversed momentum with a jaw-dropping dunk. The freshman wing drove the middle of the lane and threw down a soaring one-handed slam over 7-foot Amida Brimah, igniting an 8-0 spurt that trimmed a nine-point deficit to one.
No. 6 Duquesne standouts combine for off-the-glass alley-oop
Comment: It takes a lot for anything from a game between Duquesne and Fordham to make SportsCenter, but Duquesne guard Derrick Colter and forward Ovie Soko managed to combine for a highlight worthy of the spotlight. Colter caught a pass in transition and threw an alley-oop off the backboard to a trailing Soko, who finished the play with an emphatic two-handed slam.
No. 7 Markel Brown's spinning alley-oop
Comment: Oklahoma State's Markel Brown had enough crazy dunks this season that it was tough to choose just one to put on this list. This acrobatic alley-oop against Arkansas Pine Bluff narrowly gets the nod over a spinning transition slam against West Virginia that is also highlight-worthy.
No. 8 Raphiael Putney goes coast-to-coast
Comment: One of November's most jaw-dropping moments came courtesy of UMass forward Raphiael Putney. The senior dribbles three-quarters of the floor himself, takes off at full speed from a step inside the foul line and puts an exclamation point on UMass' victory over Youngstown State.
No. 9 Kansas State’s Marcus Foster victimizes David Stockton
Comment: Just like hall of fame point guard John Stockton appeared on numerous posters during his 19-year career with the Utah Jazz, his son has found his way onto one as well. Kansas State freshman Marcus Foster made sure of that with this emphatic one-handed slam over David Stockton early in the Wildcats' December victory over the Zags. Stockton tried to draw a charge but arrived a fraction of a second late.
No. 10 Louisville's Russ Smith dunks on Julius Randle
Comment: Late in the first half of the annual regular season matchup between Louisville and Kentucky, Smith uses a pick and roll to beat his man off the dribble, soars through the air and dunks all over a late-arriving Randle. Kentucky fans will let the Cardinals have this one. The Wildcats beat Louisville at Rupp Arena in December and again on a neutral floor in the Sweet 16
Previously in the Dagger's season-in-review series:
- The 10 best games of the 2013-14 college basketball season
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is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @JeffEisenberg
