World, meet Tony Danridge.
Danridge was on top of college basketball - even if it was just for one night.
On Thursday at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit, Danridge claimed the College Slam Dunk Championship belt with a double-windmill on ESPN, giving him a one-point victory over Charlotte's Charlie Coley III.
He wasn't demonstrative after he won. He didn't do a celebration dance. He just put on his belt and - what else? - didn't say much.
"I'm just lucky to get that one-point victory," Danridge told ESPN's Erin Andrews. "It feels pretty good. Feel like a champion."
Some Lobo fans already got a taste of what Danridge showed the country Thursday.
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At the 2006 Lobo Howl, Danridge made sure it was Midnight Madness.
Finishing off a night highlighted by an array of dunks, Danridge did a 360-variation on the windmill.
In what has become a YouTube sensation, Danridge sprinted full-speed toward the bucket. Starting from the left side of the basket, he leapt up, rotating around and going up and under the basket before viciously windmilling the ball on the other side of the hoop.
Danridge pulled off the same dunk in the first round of Thursday's competition and was awarded a perfect 50. In his first dunk attempt, Danridge received a 45.5. From there, he said he decided to go for riskier dunks early in the contest because he felt like he got gipped.
"They didn't give me no points on my first dunk," he said.
It worked.
To advance to the semifinals, he performed a behind-the-back dunk, where he switched hands mid-air.
In the finals, Jimmy Barron of Rhode Island lobbed a pass to Coley that bounced off the hardwood. Coley grabbed the ball, double clutched and was awarded a 50.
Game over? Nope.
Danridge outdid Coley in creativity. With the pressure on, Danridge palmed two balls, dunking the first one and windmilling the second to force a dunk-off.
And in sudden death, Dandridge cleaned house. Coley pulled off a 48 by dunking over a seated Jalen Rose, but it was Danridge's night.
Instead of going with an already-been-seen dunk, Danridge wowed the crowd, unveiling a double-windwill - 720 degrees - which he put down cleanly with the left hand, earning him a 49 out of 50 possible points.
"It's stuff that you see on YouTube," Danridge said. "Thankfully, I was looking on YouTube. I saw it. So, I just did it, got it down and it worked."
Head coach Steve Alford jumped out of his chair.
"It's over! It's over!" he exclaimed animatedly.
But it wasn't. Danridge sat anxiously on the scorer's table before the judges gave him the belt.
"I thought they were going to cheat me," he said. "I thought they just wanted to keep it going."
With Danridge's win on Thursday, Faris said his teammate should land on the NBA's radar screens.
"If scouts see how ridiculously athletic he is, then it will definitely help him with trying to get with an NBA team," Faris said.
