Roundtable Friday: best Markel dunk ever

Welcome to our Friday roundtable. Our exciting question this week:

What is the best Markel Brown dunk ever?

First up, OKC Dave…

OKC Dave

I loved the Keiton to Markel homage to Doug to Desmond, but the best Markel dunk has to be this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h4u7wGM630

It has a few things going for it:

We beat #2 Missouri in a year where, let’s face it, the only thing we had going was #LobStilly. We finished 15-18 and Missouri’s only other losses were to Kansas, K-State, and their first-round loss to Norfolk State.

The ejection was kind of anticlimactic, but he still gets to tell his kids that he got tossed for dunking on someone. Jurick as the voice of reason is great unintentional comedy.
You can feel Matt Pressey go from “oh, maybe I can pick of this pass” to hearing the SportsCenter theme in his head

Really, the only negative is the #Big12Ref moment where the guy disrupts the momentum of the game, takes the crowd out of it, and removes a great player from the contest. Just another day for a Big 12 official.

@CarsonC5

Before we get into what I believe is not only the greatest dunk of Markel’s career, but one of the greatest in OSU history, let me give it up to The Mayor of Lob Stilly.

Not only is he on Desmond’s heels as the greatest dunker in school history[1. Markel doesn’t quite have Desmond’s post-dunk flair. Like Vince Carter in the dunk contest, this matters. Required viewing for the youngsters.] but also he wins the Uniform Naismith Award game in & game out. His Jordan collection is well-documented and If he busts out a pair of orange & black Jordan 11s for March Madness, I may faint.

Anyway, there’s no debate for me: It’s his dunk vs. Missouri which got him ejected[2. Clearly this referee didn’t officiate Blake Griffin’s games. He was the master of mean-mugging.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h4u7wGM630#t=0m31s

This dunk has everything: Difficulty, height, power…everything. Look at how far behind him the alley-oop pass is! The fact he was able to catch the pass one-handed, and slam it that hard is impressive enough. Then you consider he has a Pressey twin[3. Not exactly Frederic Weis, but still.] draped all over him, it’s even more impressive.

This dunk is a force of nature. Yes, the two-hand windmill was amazing. The double-pump, reverse against West Virginia was spectacular. Even the first dunk against Missouri was poster-worthy[4. S-E-C! S-E-C!].

The list lengthy. And I used to scoff when Kyle would suggest Markel was in Desmond’s neighborhood — let alone on the same street — but we’re here.

In the end, this was an easy call for me. It’s the dunk that spawned the name #LobStilly. And The Mayor belongs right next to Mason in GIA’s Heritage Hall.

Pistolsboy

[cleans mud off face and from behind ears, rubs eyes, blinks…] Sorry guys, I’ve been down the YouTube rabbit hole for a while now, haven’t seen the sun for hours.

My declaration after much deliberation is…

This reverse 180 alley oop against Tennessee Tech.

Yes, both the Missouri ones were more violent[5. I really think the Missouri one the other guys mentioned is his best one but for the sake of not having three straight people try and describe four seconds worth of basketball, I went with this one.], the Texas windmill was more structured, the Tech off-the-backboard one was insane — but this one is just…mesmerizing. I could watch it over and over and over and never get tired of it.

The length of time he hangs (floats? levitates?) in the air after catching the pass from Smart is astounding. I’ve hit 3-woods that didn’t stay in the air that long.

The thing that absolutely kills me is that nobody reacts. This is a world-class “there are like 10 people in college basketball that can do this” dunk and the only thing we get is a a couple of cheerleaders hopping up and down and somebody on the bench (Kamari? Cobbins?) doing the Cole Aldrich “leg up in the air” celebration.

There’s not really a wrong answer to this question but mine is this one for now…until he does something else ridiculous.