NCAA Basketball

Viral Video Star Jacob Tucker Wins College Slam Dunk Contest

About a month ago Jacob Tucker, a 5-11 (or possibly 5-10) basketball player at Division III Illinois College, exploded onto the viral video scene by releasing a compilation of some of his finest dunks. “Short white man pulling off crazy dunk moves” is an almost guaranteed success from a “getting eyeballs” standpoint, but Tucker wanted more: to get into the NCAA’s slam dunk contest.

Well, it worked, the contest was held last night, and pretty much inevitably, Tucker won. But it wasn’t just the novelty factor that led him to victory – Tucker’s supposedly-50-inch vertical leap (seriously, 50) had a lot to do with it, too. He put together three impressive dunks, and while the dunks weren’t anything we haven’t seen before, the fact that someone under six feet tall was pulling them off – and not making it took very difficult – was remarkable.

Video of Tucker’s dunks below. They come with Karl Malone’s full approval, apparently.