DUNKING WOMEN

When the opportunity came, Michelle Snow didn’t hesitate.

After stealing the ball at the top of the key, she took off on a fast break and slammed the ball into the basket with both hands. The 6-foot-5 Tennessee center grabbed the rim and hung on, her bent legs dangling underneath.

Her dunk against Illinois on Nov. 25 in the Maui Invitational--the first in a women’s basketball game since 1994 and only the fourth in a college game--made highlight reels worldwide.

“Michelle Snow’s dunk says to America, ‘Hey, we can play above the rim,”’ said Sylvia Crawley of the WNBA’s Portland Fire. She wants to be the first woman to dunk in a professional game.

Whether other female players follow Snow’s lead is uncertain, but it “might inspire others that have the potential,” Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt said.

Confidence and opportunity--not physical limitations--might be what’s standing in the way of more slams in the women’s game, considered a purer form of the sport because it’s played almost exclusively below the rim.

That could change.

Snow and the 6-foot-7 Crawley, an assistant coach at North Carolina who won a dunk contest blindfolded in the now-defunct ABL, think more women are bound to try to dunk.

“I really hope there will be more opportunities for women, especially now that we’ve actually seen one in a game. I think other people are definitely going to come through,” said Snow, a junior from Pensacola, Fla.

Snow could dunk in junior high school and even asked college coaches recruiting her if they would mind the slams. She dunked in pregame warmups last year but stopped this season.

She says she’ll try to dunk again when she gets the chance.

“If I get a rebound and I’m just sitting above the rim, I’m going to throw it down,” she said. “That would be a great way to get one. If someone goes for the steal in the post and I can drop step, I would try it at least to see how high I was.”

The Lady Vols were literally sky high when they enjoyed a replay of the dunk together--along with a plane full of other passengers.

On the team’s flight back from Hawaii, Summitt persuaded the crew to play the tape of the game against Illinois on the plane’s VCR.

As the dunk approached, everyone on board fixed their eyes on the screens around the cabin. When Snow threw it down, cheers sounded from all corners of the plane and players exchanged high-fives.

West Virginia’s Georgeann Wells was the first woman to dunk in a college game, on Dec. 21, 1984, against the University of Charleston (W.Va.). A technical foul was called as her teammates ran onto the floor.

Wells, a 6-foot-7 center, dunked again three games later against Xavier.

But Snow got her inspiration from the woman whose dunk came 10 years later.

North Carolina’s 6-foot Charlotte Smith, a niece of former NBA star David Thompson, had a one-hand jam in a win over North Carolina A&T; on Dec. 4, 1994.

Snow asked Smith to show her how to dunk during a summer camp when Snow was younger--and shorter.

“She’d look at me and say, ‘You’re 6-4 and you can’t dunk?” Snow said. “After I saw her do it in a gym, it really became a goal.”

The women’s game draws some criticism for its lack of dunks and slower pace. So many fans would like to jazz up the game--and slams would be one way to do it.

“I think that would bring the fans in. You’ve got to do anything you can to get fan support,” said Ann Baldwin, an Iowa State fan. “People love to back a winner. If someone could dunk, that would excite them.”

Dunking, however, probably will never be emphasized in the women’s game as much as defense and 3-point shooting.

“The purest basketball is played by the collegiate women’s teams,” said coaching great John Wooden, who won 10 men’s national championships at UCLA in the 1960s-70s, seven of them in a row.

“I’ve never liked the dunk. I thought it was the best thing for basketball when they outlawed it, and I didn’t like when they put it back in. I think it brings on selfishness, showmanship, too much individual play.”

Summitt said she was all for Snow’s dunk and anyone else who does it “unless we have an abundance of players and that’s all we strive to do is dunk the basketball.”

Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma agrees. He doesn’t want the women’s game to turn into a slamfest.

“If it comes in the middle of a fastbreak and it’s fun, then I think it’s great,” he said. “But I think if people are going to devote their lives to it for women’s basketball to be better, I’d take a backdoor cut any day.”

Even though Snow hopes there will be more dunks, she wants young girls to have a broader outlook on the game.

“I want them to see it and say, ‘I want to play basketball’--not play for the dunk,” she said.