Marquette Madness is tonight, which is the unofficial start to college basketball season. The format of the event has changed slightly over the years, but the event that every casual fan is there to see is the DUNK CONTEST. Dunking a basketball is a dream for most of us. I can remember pulling the ladder out in the driveway and jumping off to feel the sensation of throwing one down...looking back, not the safest idea. For those of you that grew up in Southeast Wisconsin, I bet you have memories of dunking on the 6 foot hoops while attending a birthday party at the old Mike Hegan’s “Field Of Dreams”. The point is, everybody loves a good dunk. It can electrify a stadium, put you on SportsCenter Top 10, or instantly make you YouTube famous.

My favorite Madness moment was seeing a young Dwyane Wade in the 2000 dunk contest. He was a relative unknown at the time, and ineligible for the upcoming season, but after seeing him throw down that night...everybody in attendance saw a glimpse of something special. Now, not every dunk contest lives up to the hype. There is not a D-Wade or a Deonte Burton every year, but let’s see how this year’s participants might stack up.

Your dunkers for this year’s edition are all newcomers to MU: Jamal Cain, Greg Elliott, Ike Eke, and Ed Morrow. This should be a nice mini showcase of the touted athletic ability of the newbies.

Let’s see if we can sample some of their previous dunking prowess:

Ed Morrow

Morrow is a 6’7” transfer from Nebraska. He will be a redshirt this season due to transfer rules, but that won’t prevent him from throwing down some putback dunks in practice. Ed wins this thing if he can throw down some pure ANGRY dunks, maybe break a backboard or two. BOOMSHAKALAKA!

Greg Elliott

The 6’3” freshman from Detroit will definitely be the shortest competitor tonight, but he is wiry. His long arms enable him to play above the rim and finish with authority. Greg has a shot of winning if he can use his height to his advantage...smaller guys always get the benefit of the doubt in dunk contests.

It seems as though Elliott has experience being in High School dunk contests. Not as the contestant though, he gave his fellow Detroit buddies Jamal Cain and Ike Eke a hand as a “prop”. Check out this awesome footage of the three MU commits at the Mitten Classic Dunk Contest in Michigan.

Ike Eke

The tallest of the four competitors, at 6’9”, Ike is a real threat to win this thing. As you can see above, he has experience with dunk contests. I think it is safe to say he has an arsenal of dunks he can go to tonight. Since Elliott is his competition, we will see who he may choose to leap over tonight.

Check out a compilation of Ike dunking 23 times in 2 minutes...

Jamal Cain

Standing at 6’7”, this dude is a physical specimen. He has the look of a guy that is going to give us plenty of highlight dunks during his time at MU. Jamal wins tonight if the ball goes in the hoop. Simply put, if he makes his dunks, he will win. Let’s see the tape...

RAZZLE DAZZLE!

All I have to say is...

I think going to watch Jamal Cain dunk basketballs is worth the price of admission alone (it’s free). As I mentioned earlier, this freshman class has been touted as being an athletic bunch. We will get to see a sneak peak from 3 of the 4 tonight.

My prediction is that we are going to have a repeat of that dunk contest from the Mitten Classic. Ike Eke vs. Jamal Cain in the finals. This lines up to be one of the better dunk contests of Marquette Madness. Get your popcorn out and your Snapchat ready to go!