By Noah Allison
Louisville is a basketball school, and of all the basketball schools Louisville is one that is
known for its dunkers.
The rims are still shaking from the power of past greats. Last year, forward Chane
Behanan won Dunk of the Year and tied U of L’s single season dunk record with 59.
Terrence Williams, otherwise know as T-Will, could throw it down on anybody. National
Champion and All-American center Pervis Ellison originally set the single-season dunk
record. And of course there is the great Darrell Griffith, Dr. Dunkenstein, enough said.
The list goes on, and this year sophomore forward Montrezl Harrell has put himself at
the top of it. Through 26 games of his sophomore season Harrel broke Ellison’s record of
59. He got dunk number 60 at home against the University of South Florida and has four
more games to add to it.
“I was 14 the first time I dunked,” Harrell said. “It’s an aggressive play and I’m an
aggressive player attacking the rim. Once you go up to dunk the ball it’s a for-sure two
points. There are not too many dunks that I’ll miss.”
Harrell has possibly the most famous dunk in school history with his lead taking, monster
alley-oop at the end of the first half of last year’s National Championhsip.
For not playing all too much his freshman year, Harrell has taken a huge step of
improvement being the teams leading rebounder and second-leading scorer. The young
captain is contributing far more than just his dunks to Louisville this year. But the dunks
have not gone unappreciated.
“It’s really remarkable that he set this record as a sophomore,” head coach Rick Pitino said.
“And especially when you consider that he didn’t play that much as a freshman so for him to
set it as a sophomore is really something. You’d think Doctor Dunkenstein would have this
record by 100 or something, but Montrezl set it as a sophomore.”
Harrell is sixth place all time for Louisville’s leader board of dunks. He is less than ten
away from tying Cornelius Holden who played for Louisville from 1988-92.
“There are a lot of great guys on that list,” Harrell said. “Coming in here I didn’t know too
much about it, but then once it started to dawn on me that I had a chance to break it, it is a
blessing. Now I hold that record and it’s just a matter of how high I’m going to set it.”