The hour-long Tide Tipoff event had the traditional preseason pep rally feel with the player introductions, tossed t-shirts and 3-point shooting.
The main event, however, came last.
Five-star freshman JD Davison and the dunk contest was the show closer for Homecoming Friday crowd in Coleman Coliseum. The newcomer from Calhoun High came to Alabama as a high-flying phenom and the buzz clearly cranked up when he got the ball.
Davison didn’t disappoint.
He just didn’t win.
Keon Ellis instead walked away with the crown after Davison earned all 10s on his second-round slam but failed to complete a dunk in his final 45-second turn.
Coach Nate Oats said he was excited to hear the crowd chanting Davison’s name before he nailed his perfect dunk as determined by judges including James Spann and Lawson Schaffer.
“He pulled off a dunk I’d never seen before,” Oats said. “I asked him if he invented it or stole it from someone. He said he couldn’t remember where he saw it.”
The fact Davison went first in the final round certainly helped Ellis, Oats said.
“I think we’ll see some exciting dunks in game from JD, for sure,” Oats said.
Juwan Gary had one of the other crowd-favorite dunk in the first round but he didn’t advance out of the opening bracket.
Ellis’ first round slam came with an assist from Jahvon Quinerly off the side of the backboard.
Alabama has its only exhibition of the preseason at 2 p.m. Sunday against Louisiana. The women’s basketball team has an exhibition Nov. 4 against Alabama-Huntsville in Coleman Coliseum.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook
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