While the men’s basketball team had its postseason dreams extinguished early in March, one Brave was able to carry the team name to North Texas, home of the 2014 Final Four.
Senior Walt Lemon Jr. was selected to participate in the College Slam dunk contest April 3 in front in front of thousands of fans and an ESPN audience.
Top men and women Division I basketball players participated in the three point and dunk contests. Lemon was one of eight players selected to participate in the dunk competition.
“It was exciting and an honor to be picked to go down there,” Lemon said. “For them to even consider me for the top dunker in the country is something to be proud of.”
Lemon started off his routine by bringing Bradley mascot Kaboom! onto the court to hold the ball in front of the basket, where Lemon jumped up and dunked it. Kaboom! appeared to be one of the only mascots there, which may have brought Lemon fan support.
Between the judges’ scores and fan voting using the hashtag #Lemon10, Lemon scored high enough to move to the next round.
He had trouble with his first semi-final dunk, but his second saw him run across the baseline before going through his legs for the slam dunk. He did not score enough to move to the finals.
Lemon finished in fourth place. He joins Laurence Wright in 2006 and Chris Roberts in 2010 as the only Braves to participate in the NCAA Division 1 dunk competition.
