Bear Down Wildcats

In honor of Rawle Alkins's dunk and in memoriam for Elijah Stewart, rewatching that dunk made me think about the greatest dunks in Arizona history. I'm later to fandom than some, so that will be reflected in my picks, but there have been a lot of good ones in the Miller era. Rawle obviously makes the list. Other dunks that leap to mind:

DWill's pair vs Duke, the follow dunk and the waters parting in the lane.
Jamelle Horne serving up a facial in that same game.
Aaron Gordon's lob vs SDSU in the Sweet 16.
Jerryd Bayless's OT dunk vs Illinois.
Gardner to Arenas to Jefferson vs UW.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot (I can't believe I did not list Iggy, Adams, and I had trouble picking a specific Nick Johnson dunk) so please add.

Also, sort of on topic. Between my freshman and sophomore year of HS, we went to a team camp in Flagstaff. I remember walking into a gym, and seeing a kid just huck the ball towards the rim from half court. I had the WTF reaction right until some guy came flying in from nowhere, grabbed the ball and hammered it home with his head about rim level. It went from WTF to "who the **** is that?" My teammate went to ask who that was, and that turned out to be the first time I had seen or heard of Richard Jefferson.

It was funny when he blew up at Arizona, because I got to react like "hey, that's that kid from Flagstaff." I still remember praying we didn't have to play them because there wasn't anything I was going to do about the stuff he could do.

Yea there’s so many. Jefferson in Maui had a two handed slam I think where he was super high up. Adams versus Utah when he dunked on Bogut right at the end of the game.

RHJ over the 7’5” guy

Oh yea that’s a good one. I also liked Dwill when he did a dropstep spin move in traffic versus Uconn in the tourney and slammed it in on two guys.

I get it Spiff. Until he had his sophomore year growth spurt, Mike Bibby was just Henry Bibby's little peanut on the freshman team at Shadow Mountain High.

When it comes to a list of Arizona's greatest dunks ever, there's the 2011 Duke game, and then there's everything else. There were multiple dunks like Rawle had last night in that game, in both halves, by multiple players. These were cathartic, angry statements with continuing, viral resonance.

There were exciting dunks in games going back to reverse jams by Kenny Lofton and Anthony Cook in '88 games against Oregon and Seton Hall, respectively. But Derrick Williams got on a poster for one game, and that was a brilliant 40 minutes against Duke--which seemed to bring out that kind of force in our players (see Brian Williams' jams in the 1991 Tucson game, Aaron Gordon's alley-oops in MSG in '15, etc.).

To me, the dunks on Duke are in a class all their own.

Frybry02 wrote:RHJ over the 7’5” guy

Rondae against NMSU was a good one I forgot.

https://youtu.be/QFzdSbn2QgA" target="_blank

Do alley-oops count? Cause D-Will had a couple of those that were insane. The reverse one against Idaho State (I think?) and pass halfway up the zoo vs UCLA are the two that immediately come to mind. Not saying they're better but at least discussion worthy.

Kenny Lofton reverse dunk vs. Oregon at McKale. Definitely top 5.

Reggie Geary's put back slam against Arkansas in the 1994 Final Four.

I recall RJ had an alley oop against Kentucky in Maui that was in the tv promo package for a few years afterwards.

But all of his dunks pail in comparison to the blocks against MSU and Stanford.

Oddly, Salim Stoudamire had an epic dunk over USC I think. Just kept going up and smashed on one of their players.

Hassan Hot Sauce Adams could have been our most consistent dunk machine we ever had, he would get a couple really good ones each game. Like whoa that was amazing dunks consistently. And Marques Johnson was always on the call those days.

RJ had one at Stanford where coming down he he spread his legs to strattle the top of the defender. One of the best dunks I have ever seen in competition.

Love that dunk by AG against Gonzaga. It's like: "Uh, that's mine, bitch!" I remember high-fiving a guy in McKale after that NJ dunk. Never knew his name and he didn't always show up but it was one of those phantom friendships McKale created amongst the Wildcat congregation.

AZgreg's fourth GIF = AG nearly getting his titties above the rim.

A video I made years ago...and to BJBJ it has the Salim dunk in it. Sorry I can’t embed it.

https://youtu.be/KJzfmEinQWk" target="_blank

One of the few I saw live.. Igoudala had one at Cal I remember being awesome. Straight down the lane. tomahawk over a defender.

walk-on-wildcat wrote:A video I made years ago...and to BJBJ it has the Salim dunk in it. Sorry I can’t embed it.

https://youtu.be/KJzfmEinQWk" target="_blank

Use the embed code.

Sean Elliot dunk over the bevy of Oklahoma defenders in the FF is tops for me His dunk over the defensive player of the year from Duke, Billie King at Mckale was #2. Rondae's dunk (I think against NMST) where he just seemed to keep elevating is #3 but is the most athletic dunk followed by Gordon on the alley oop of the in bounds play against CU is my #4

azcat49 wrote: Gordon on the alley oop of the in bounds play is my #4

Why don't we run this inbounds play to Ayton....EVERY TIME!