Jeff Cumberland has mad hoop skills (pics)
There was quite a bit of Web activity on the story I wrote Saturday of Illinois football player Jeff Cumberland winning the slam dunk contest at the Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, so I decided to throw up a few more photos of Cumberland from the event. Cumberland was a beast and didn’t disappoint a crowd that expected him to win after the receiver won the event in 2007. He said he had planned on trying out for the basketball team this year but a foot injury kept him out. Though he is quite the specimen — agile, muscular physique and obviously plenty of hops — at 6-foot-5, he doesn’t have the size to be a big man and he’s too big (a chiseled but bulky 250 lbs) to play guard or small forward. Still, he put on quite a show in Downtown Champaign Saturday night. Cumberland had been volunteering at the tournament with several of his teammates.
Here are the photos. I’m not the best photographer but I think a few of these turned out ok. I didn’t edit or crop any of them since I just made a slideshow of the rest of the event and I don’t feel like editing for another few hours. Enjoy!
Cumberland puts on his basketball shoes before the show begins.
