Women’s Hoops Hits New Era of Athleticism

It took just shy of a full decade before another women’s college basketball player would join the ranks with Wells. In December 1994, just months removed from making a buzzer-beater that earned UNC a national championship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Charlotte Smith dunked during a game early in her senior season. At an even 6-feet tall, Smith is the shortest women’s NCAA player to dunk.

It was another six years before University of Tennessee’s Michelle Snow became the third player to record a dunk. At 6-foot-5, Snow dunked three times during her collegiate career and also followed Lisa Leslie as the second player to dunk in a WNBA game.

Since the mid 2000s, women and girls dunking in college, and even high school, has been on the rise. The 2004-05 season was the first time women’s college basketball saw not just one, but three star players with notable dunking ability playing simultaneously. That was the senior season for Sancho Lyttle at the University of Houston, and the freshman seasons for phenoms Candace Parker (University of Tennessee) and Sylvia Fowles (Louisiana State University).

In 2003, the 6-foot-5 Lyttle became the fourth player to record a dunk, which occurred against Gonzaga during her sophomore year at the University of Houston. Candace Parker, standing 6-foot-4, followed Lyttle with multiple dunks in her college career, but it was her slam against Army in 2006 that put her in a whole new category. With Tennessee trailing by one point early on against a team they were expected to dominate, Parker ran out on the break and threw down a one-handed dunk. That play made Parker the first woman to dunk during an NCAA Tournament game. And she wasn’t done: In the second half, Parker slammed another one home, becoming the first to dunk twice in the same game.

Six-foot-6 Sylvia Fowles was a dominant force for LSU at the same time Parker was making headlines at Tennessee. During a game in 2007 that LSU would go on to win by 35 points, Fowles turned a steal on defense into an emphatic two points with a dunk that put her in the history books. Fowles and Parker have since both dunked in WNBA games, and have a combined 12 WNBA All-Star Game appearances and 4 Most Valuable Player awards. Fowles retired in 2022, dunking in her final WNBA All-Star Game, while Parker is still active.

Griner started her college basketball career with all the fanfare you’d expect for a 6-foot-9 center touted as the No. 1 prospect out of high school. She wasted no time, dunking twice in one game as a freshman at Baylor University. Griner also threw down a dunk in the 2012 NCAA Tournament, and followed with an eye-popping three dunks as a senior in the 2013 tournament. According to ESPN, when Griner graduated, she had dunked more times than all previous Division I women’s college basketball players combined. She has also dunked a record 23 times during her WNBA career.

As the 2022-2023 season shapes up to be bigger than ever, already on the horizon for the future is star high school junior Toby Fouriner from Toronto, Canada. The 6-foot-2 forward may still be growing, and videos posted online show her putting down a bevy of dunks. One-handed, two-handed, in-game, pregame, and even a showcase at a high school dunk contest during Fournier’s sophomore year could be hints of what women’s college basketball will look like in just a couple years.