Indiana Basketball’s Assembly Hall has had quite a few athletes walk through its doors.
While Indiana may be synonymous with shooting, there have been many soaring athletes in the last two decades of Hoosier hoops. These players, with their awe-inspiring hops, mesmerize fans through powerful yet elegant slams and send the decibel level in Assembly Hall to the stratosphere.
In today’s list, we take a look at the best dunkers to step on the court in an Indiana jersey during the 21st century.
#3 — Justin Smith
The most recent departure of the Indiana Basketball program cracks our list at number three. Smith is a freak athlete with a 6’7” frame, quickness, and 48” vertical. Smith’s lack of skill as a ball-handler somewhat limits his ability to dunk, as he usually has to receive a pass in order to take flight to the rim.
Still, Smith’s elite athleticism made for quite a few jams during his days as a Hoosier. Just look at his dunk versus Louisville last season if you have any doubts.
Smith is capable of some nasty throwdowns.
#2 — Will Sheehey
Who could forget about Will Sheehey and his electrifying dunks? Sheehey loved to dunk the basketball, and created many highlight plays through that desire. He could dunk around people or on people off of one or two feet. When he went to the rack, Sheehey implemented a lot of force.
After every single dunk, Sheehey dropped his arms to his side, tilted his head backward, opened his eyes so wide it looked like they were going to pop out of his head and let out a wily scream to pump up the crowd. He was a performer and was able to get Assembly Hall rocking on more than one occasion.
Sheehey also has perhaps the greatest dunk in Indiana history to his name. Still, he didn’t have quite the same level of aerial artistry as number one on our list
#1 — Victor Oladipo
It’s a close contest between former teammates Victor Oladipo and Will Sheehey (gosh, that team was fun), but Oladipo gets the edge. Although he doesn’t have any dunks quite as good as Sheehey’s versus Iowa, Oladipo’s regular old boring dunk was still wildly cool. He flew through the air with one or two hands, and when he grabbed the rim he pulled on it like he was trying to rip it off its hinges.
His high-flying antics mixed with his aggressive rim hangs and almost reckless attack on the basket make for one sweet combination. Oladipo also missed one of the greatest dunks in college basketball history by an inch, when he reached back all the way in midair and barely, just barely, missed the tomahawk alley-oop.
The style and frequency with which Oladipo dunked make him number one on our list of sickest dunkers. Which dunks were the best? Stay tuned, because we’ll be counting those down as well.