She Dunked. Twice.

Candace Parker made history on Sunday. She dunked in a basketball game, twice. Parker became the first woman to dunk in the an NCAA tournament game and also became the first woman to dunk twice in the same game. Parker is a redshirt freshman at the University of Tennessee, she was redshirted during her freshman year because of two knee surgeries to repair a torn ACL. Parker's feat was impressive, especially to me, a person who has never dunked (on a 10-foot hoop that is), but what is even more impressive is that she did it coming off the two major knee operations. Also the manner in which the dunks were done, one of them was done on a fast-break situation, which is the only time that I have seen a woman dunk the ball. But the other was done off a set play in the offense, with Parker diving backdoor for the slam, that amazed me. This should not come as much of a surprise though to those who follow women's college basketball, or basketball in general. Parker won the McDonald's All-American Slam Dunk Contest when she was a senior in high school, she competed against boys her same age. Now people say that her dunks weren't impressive (and in my opinion they weren't) but she did do one where see covered her eyes, a-la Dee Brown (not the University of Illinois point guard, the former Boston Celtic of NBA Slam Dunk Contest fame). Parker has a chance to change woman's college basketball, and become it's first player to "play above the rim."

Dunking isn't her lone claim to fame though. It isn't all she can do. She isn't some novelty act. She might be the best woman's player in the game. Playing her high school ball at Naperville Central High School (Naperville is a suburb of Chicago), Parker was the most decorated woman's high school player of all time, the female version of LeBron James, you could say. She is the only woman ever to be named two time National Player of the Year by USA Today (2003 and 2004), and during her time at Naperville she led the team to a 95-4 mark that included two state championships. She has numerous High School All-American Awards, several other Player of the Year Awards handed out by different publications, and three Illinois Miss Basketball Awards (which is given to the best female basketball player in the state). This year she was named second team All-SEC and named as a finalist for the John Wooden Player of the Year Award as well as the All-American team. This year seems like the beginning of a dominant career. Watch out for many more awards, and many more dunks.

Publish Date: March 20 in the Missourian.