Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Dunk of the Year nominee: Dayton forward Chris Wright

For college basketball to push its way into SportsCenter's top 10 plays on a New Year's Day featuring 12 straight hours of bowl games, someone has to deliver a dunk that's especially memorable.

Sure enough, Dayton's Chris Wright did just that, adding to his reputation as one of college basketball's must-watch dunkers with this one-handed follow slam against New Mexico on Saturday afternoon.  

The Lobos fail to block out Wright on Josh Parker's off-balance three-point attempt, so the Dayton forward comes in from beyond the foul line, collects the miss in mid-air, absorbs some contact and throws down an acrobatic dunk all in one motion. The play helped propel Dayton to a come-from-behind 76-73 double-overtime victory in a game that trumped many of the New Year's Day bowl games in terms of entertainment value.

Amazingly enough, Wright's dunk arguably wasn't even the best of the game. In the play immediately afterward on the above highlight video, freshman Juwan Staten drives baseline and unleashes a fierce one-handed dunk over a New Mexico defender who rotated over a step or two too late.

Previous Dunk of the Year nominees: 

Illinois forward Brandon Paul

Central Florida guard Marcus Jordan

Syracuse forward C.J. Fair

Old Dominion guard Kent Bazemore

High Point guard Shay Shine

Memphis forward D.J. Stephens 

Christina DaRe Malin Akerman Melissa Joan Hart Bianca Kajlich Giulianna Ramirez

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