Top 10 Greatest College Dunking Guards

5. Harold Miner (USC)

When a player at any level is an incredible slasher who can get to the basket at will, it’s inevitable that there will be comparisons to Michael Jordan. For Miner – who became known as “Baby Jordan” – it was even more pronounced. But this isn’t about the overall shortcomings of Miner after his Trojans career.

The Pac-10 Player of the Year in 1992 and an eventual two-time NBA dunk contest winner, Miner slammed with incredible power, had exceptional lift off the ground and an ability to contort his body in the air. In fact, Miner had a jam against cross-city rival UCLA known as just “The Dunk.” What more do you need to know?

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4. Steve Francis (Maryland)

In college, it’s not about the franchise. But the Terps wish they could have held on to “Steve Franchise” for more than just one season. His remarkable athleticism was something not seen in College Park since the late Len Bias. Francis was a lead guard who did most of his damage in transition, using his quick hands to pick up steals before he exploded in the other direction.

And that inimitable style was Francis’ best attribute. He dunked with such flair – taking off from midway down the lane and leaning into a two-handed tomahawk slam – that Maryland’s aforementioned transition game became more like a one-man fast break. It’s insane the highlight reel he put together considering how long he played D1 ball.

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3. Vince Carter (North Carolina)

Yeah, we know about Frederic Weis and the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, but Carter’s college jams are lost among the volumes of his professional and international dunking footage. At North Carolina, Carter was considered somewhat of a specialist alongside Antawn Jamison; he was the designated finisher, the athletic dunker who could swing the emotion in a game with one thunderous jam.

He may have old creaky knees now but for the Tar Heels, Carter – who had all the credentials as a doctor of dunk – famously dunked over Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan (below) and had an epic inbounds play vs. Clemson – and those became just blips on his highlight reel.

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2. Clyde Drexler (Houston)

He was a member of the fraternity Phi Slama Jama – need we say more? The most-memorable thing about Drexler – in a college game full of players still trying to polish their games – was the relative ease with which he made some of the most jaw-dropping plays. Drexler made a dunk from the free-throw line look like a lay-up.

But our favorite dunk came at the expense of Memphis State’s Andre Turner, who could only watch as Drexler took off from the dotted line and punched one through with the impossible combination of grace and force. And that was Clyde the Glyde in a nutshell.

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1. Darrell Griffith (Louisville)

If you are a casual sports fan under 30, you’ve probably never even heard of Darrell Griffith, which is a shame because “Dr. Dunkenstein” was college basketball’s version of Blake Griffin in the 1970s. The leader of the “Doctors of Dunk” had a 48-inch vertical allowed him to play in the stratosphere; he was also fearless and made a routine of dunking in the grill of opponents.

As a former teammate best put it, Griffith was “completely disrespectful of the law of gravity.” And to think, if dunking hadn’t been legalized Griffith’s freshman year, none of these moments would have happened.

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