Jalen Crutcher on dunk vs. VCU: ‘I had my mind made up’

“That’s got to be SportsCenter’s top play,” Dayton guard Dwayne Cohill said. “I’ve seen him do it before, but that should be No. 1.”

“That was pretty nice,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “He’s got some lift.”

The Dayton Flyers guard Crutcher caught a pass from Ibi Watson on the fast break, took two steps and then rose high in the air to throw down a one-handed jam over VCU’s Vince Williams in the first half.

It was not the first dunk of Crutcher's career, but it was his first dunk of the season. He led Dayton with 18 points in a 66-61 victory Tuesday at the Siegel Center.

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“I just had my mind made up when Ibi threw me the ball,” Crutcher said.

Asked if it was his best dunk as a Flyer, Crutcher said, “I had one in practice. I ain’t going to tell you who I dunked on. I don’t want anybody to get mad. For sure, in the game, it was a best one.”

Dayton’s dunking star, Obi Toppin, didn’t have a dunk, so he still needs one dunk to break the school record for dunks in a season. He has 83 and leads the nation.

Toppin wasn’t surprised by Crutcher’s dunk.

“He does it a lot in practice,” Toppin said. “As soon as I saw him running the floor, I knew he was going to dunk. It was in his eyes. Everyone knew he was going to dunk.”