The State Farm College SLAM Dunk & 3-Point Championships will pop off tomorrow with as loaded a field as has been seen in recent memory. Here’s all the info via our friends at InterSport:
Missouri’s Marcus Denmon and Duke’s Miles Plumlee highlight the 2012 State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships, Intersport announced today. The 24thannual event will air live at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT Thursday on ESPN. The event will take place at Fogelman Arena on the campus of Tulane University. Doors open at 7 p.m. CT. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.collegeslam.com.
Denmon will be competing in the 2012 Hampton Hotels Men’s 3-Point Championship. Other contestants include: John Shurna (Northwestern); Juan Fernandez (Temple); Chace Stanback (UNLV); Bradford Burgess (VCU); Casper Ware (Long Beach State); Ryne Smith (Purdue); and Nick Barbour (High Point).
The roster for the 2012 State Farm Women’s 3-Point Championship includes: Brittany Rayburn(Purdue); Jessica Jenkins (St. Bonaventure); Ashley Corral (USC); Becky Burke (Louisville); Taylor Alton (Michigan State); Courtney Ingersoll (Toledo); Markeshia Grant (South Carolina); andAlyssa Shoji (Santa Clara).
After the men’s and women’s competitions, the winner from each event will participate in the Pure Protein Battle of the Champions to crown an overall 3-point winner.
Plumlee will be competing in the 2012 Denny’s Slam Dunk Championship. Additional contestants include: Kenny Gabriel (Auburn); DeQuan Jones (Miami); Bryan Narcisse (Clemson); David Kyles (Wichita State); Olu Ashaolu(Oregon); William Mosley (Northwestern State); and James Justice (Martin Methodist).
Of note, Justice was named the “2012 Dark Horse Dunker” after hundreds of thousands of votes were cast to determine which under-the-radar dunker deserved the last roster spot in the Denny’s Slam Dunk Championship. To find out more about the Facebook campaign, visit www.facebook.com/CollegeSlam.
The celebrity judges panel for the Denny’s Slam Dunk Championship will include: former Duke University point guard, two-time national champion and alum of the State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships Bobby Hurley; current New Orleans Saints running back Pierre Thomas; current New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham; and four-time NBA Champion John Salley.
The “Fifth Judge” of the Denny’s Slam Dunk Championship will be the fans, who will be able to vote via Twitter. For the first time in the history of the event, fans will help decide which dunkers move on each round by using #CollegeSlam, followed by the player’s name and a score of one through 10 (E.g. #CollegeSlam #Smith10). From there, Mass Relevance, the technology leader in social curation and integration, will calculate all fan scores and deliver an average rating via their platform. That rating will be paired with the four celebrity judges’ scores to make up each player’s total score.
Alumni of the event include: Gary Payton (Oregon State), Steve Nash (Santa Clara), Allan Houston (Tennessee), Kendall Gill (Illinois), Jason Terry (Arizona); Kristi Toliver (Maryland) and Cappie Pondexter (Rutgers). Additionally, six current members of the Harlem Globetrotters have competed in this event: William Bullard, Darnell Wilks, John Williams, Herb Lang, Kris Bruton, and the 2011 Denny’s Slam Dunk Champion Jacob Tucker.
General admission tickets are $15, a Family Four Pack is $40 and groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets for $8 per ticket. Visit www.collegeslam.com to purchase tickets.
The ESPN broadcast team includes Brad Nessler, Dan Dakich, Jimmy Dykes and Shannon Spake. The program will have numerous encore airings on ESPN networks. Check local listings.
