Last week’s Wednesday Dunk Battle was one of the most hotly contested ever, pitting LeBron James and Blake Griffin (the two most prolific Wednesday Dunk Battlers of the season) against a sea otter and a guy who dunked through fire. The sea otter murdered them. But still, the idea is that the Wednesday Dunk Battle is HEATING UP, and this week we see who dares follow in Eddie the Sea Otter’s footsteps. Yes, LeBron James is in this one, too. Yes, I tried to see how many times I could write “Wednesday Dunk Battle” in one paragraph.

This week’s dunks:

1. Past-his-prime Kobe Bryant goes FULL PRIME on Josh Smith.
2. LeBron James runs a slant route en route to his one millionth alley-oop from Dwyane Wade.
3. Baylor’s Brittney Griner dunks on what might as well be everyone from Kansas State.
4. Louisville’s Chane Behanan uses the anger he’s felt trying to spell “Shane Bohannon” in his lifetime and brutally dunks over DePaul guard Worrel Clahar, who has NO IDEA what to spell.

You make the call. Please remember that your science is appreciated, and that voting in the poll below officially makes you a scientist. OF BASKETBALL DUNKS.

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Warning: This post deals with women’s college basketball. Just hold your nose through the first paragraph and you’ll be in great shape.

Sure, Danica races with the boys, and the Williams sisters seem to take turns owning the rest of professional women’s tennis, but there’s an argument to be made for Baylor freshman freshperson Brittney Griner as the most badass female athlete in the land. She dunks. She punches people. She probably pees standing up, too. You know, trajectory…or something. But Griner is about to help her Baylor Bears blast open the cartel of women’s college hoops held by Tennessee (who they just beat) and UConn. But guess what…no one cares.

Curtains covering the upper deck helped trim the usual capacity at FedExForum from 18,085 to 9,343, and local organizers had to be happy at least a few in Tennessee orange stuck around with only 29 fans in one end zone.

They wound up with 3,263 in attendance, well below the 6,577 for Saturday’s semifinals. –AP.

Three thousand people for a regional final. Yeah, so let’s not get too excited about Baylor blowing away the old guard here. And I think we can agree that there clearly isn’t enough talent to stock 64 Division I programs. Any 18-year-old that can play and has decent grades can count her options on one hand. That’s not great for any sport, but it’s good for the athletes, because women are terrible at math.

And, apparently, layups. Enjoy the stylings of Xavier’s Dee Dee Jernigan, who blows not one but two game-winning layups after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »