Listed (and perhaps generously so) at 6-foot-1, Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn doesn't look like anyone's ideal candidate to put anyone on a poster.
Yet before the season, in an informal poll of Illinois players, Gibbs-Lawhorn was named at least as often, if not more than, any other teammate as the best dunker on the team. "Best" may be in the eye of the beholder, but Gibbs-Lawhorn wins "most astonishing" by a Champaign County mile.
He proved it again Sunday in Illinois' 87-79 home win over Ohio State at State Farm Center with a ridiculous one-handed tomahawk jam that probably should have had a flight number:
"That was amazing," said teammate Morez Johnson Jr. after the game. "He took off on the Big 10 logo â€" caught me off guard a little bit."
Johnson wasn't the only one thrown.
"Did you see where he left from?" Illinois coach Brad Underwood said.
"Holy balls of wax, was that impressive. I mean, I just turned around and ... wow."
Just as remarkable was Gibbs-Lawhorn's timing. He secured a runway to the rim by aggressively firing as a screen defender on the other end of the floor, poaching a steal from Buckeyes guard Devin Royal, gliding with the ball across the timeline and hammering home the dunk to trim what had been an 11-point OSU lead to one with 12:06 to play.
It was an inflection point during a 22-point Illini turnaround. Gibbs-Lawhorn's reaction â€" and that of the State Farm Center crowd â€" was as much an acknowledgement of the momentum shift as it was a celebration of his aerial artistry.
"If you saw the video," said Will Riley, who trailed just behind Gibbs-Lawhorn on the play, "you could see my reaction to it."