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Rodney Williams thinks 360 dunks are too easy

Rodney Williams, Jio Fontan, Dewayne Dedmon

Minnesota’s Rodney Williams Jr. dunks as Southern California’s Jio Fontan (1) and Dewayne Dedmon (14) look on during the second half of their NCAA basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

AP

It must be nice to be Rodney Williams.

Let’s start with the obvious: Williams is currently a senior on the Minnesota basketball team, which means that not only is he one semester away from completing his (free) degree, he’s also a star for the state’s biggest university and best basketball team. Williams just so happens to be a Minnesota native as well, which means he’s doing all of this while his friends and family are able to come to The Barn to watch him play.

Should I mention that he’s averaging 13.6 points and 6.3 boards for the Gophers and well on his way to putting together a senior season strong enough to get him picked in the NBA draft?

All of that is cool and all, but when you throw in the fact that he’s a) 6-foot-8 and b) athletic enough that 360 dunks are layups to him, well, you can forgive me if I in no way, shape or form empathize with the fact that he’s getting bored with those 360’s. From Carrie Mathison, I mean Amelia Rayno, of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

But after the game, the media circled Williams’ and demanded (jokingly, ok? We’re not that mean) why he hadn’t attempted something new. After all, LAST year he was tired of the 360 – when he flipped it in a game, he shook his head afterward and said he wanted to get creative.

So -- back to the old tried-and-true again on Tuesday?

“I got nervous,” Williams said, shaking his head. “I had to do what I knew would go in, so I did a 360. You see I almost broke my back afterward, so maybe next time I should just lay it up or something. I knew I had to do something. When I got the steal initially, I was just going to dunk regular, but I knew I had to do something cause I heard the crowd.”


Even Williams’ teammates are getting fed up with the best dunker in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. “We won’t give him any crap right now because everybody likes it, it gets the crowd hyped, it gets us hyped,” Austin Hollins told Rayno, jokingly. “But if he doesn’t it again, we might have to say a couple words to him.”

One hour.

That’s all I want.

Just one hour of knowing what it feels like to be so athletic that 360 dunks where you take off from two-thirds of the way up the lane are commonplace.

Someone needs to photoshop Rodney Williams into a picture with McKayla Maroney, ASAP.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.