The dunk shot, with all of its pros and cons, still remains one of the things about basketball that sets it a part from other sports

Now, I’m not a big fan of certain kinds of dunking.

Mostly the kind practiced in the National Basketball Association where every player seems to auditioning (hotdogging is a better word) for a spot on the following day’s Sportscenter highlights show.

I’m a firm believer that if a player stands at least 6-foot-6, he should be able to dunk with a fairly high degree of proficiency.

But when the 5-6 Spud Webb dunked back in the day, that was kid of special.

The kind of dunks that really get a crowd going come in high school or college games.

Hancock’s Chad Raasio has displayed that this season with three dunks. You normally don’t see that around here, unless you’ve been watching Ewen-Trout Creek’s junior center Jake Witt. Witt stands 6-7.

Still, the most exciting high school dunk I’ve ever witnessed came in a 1988 Class C regional game between Houghton and Iron Mountain.

The Mountaineers had cut a once-sizeable Gremlins lead to one point with 10 seconds left and had the ball at midcourt when Stan Sharik of HHS stole the ball.

Instead of passing the ball out, the 6-1 Sharik went down the floor and executed a perfect tomahawk slam. The some 4,000 fans at Hedgcock Fieldhouse roared in appreciation and Houghton won the game.

As far as college goes, you can see dunks at just about any game.

But the one that sticks out in my mind came in a 2004 men’s regional game at Michigan Tech between the Huskies and Southern Indiana.

MTU, which had a terrific team that season, was trailing early in the game to a SIU team that was shooting the lights out.

But senior Tech forward Matt Cameron changed the complexion of the game when he threw down a reverse dunk that got the already juiced-up crowd of 3,800 on their feet.

There has never been a larger crowd at the SDC before or after that.

The Huskies eventually lost an 85-82 decision, but Cameron’s dunk is still remembered by anyone who was there that night.

That’s why the dunk shot, which is often overused nowadays, still can ignite a crowd.