WATCH: DJ Jefferson performs spectacular dunk in warmups ahead of matchup with Texas
The Tennessee Volunteers basketball team had a story recently air about them on ESPN’s College Gameday, highlighting how much they like dunking in warmups ahead of their games. One of their most electrifying dunkers is freshman DJ Jefferson, who is redshirting this season for the Volunteers. On Saturday night, he gave the Volunteer fans something to cheer about in warmups before the Texas game, when he bounced the ball, caught it, went under his feet, and finished with the slam.
It was a pretty spectacular looking dunk. Check it out below and it looks even better in slow motion.
It doesn’t matter if it was in warmups, that’s an extremely difficult dunk to complete. Jefferson made that look too easy. It’s also a beautiful piece of video work by the Tennessee basketball social media team to slow the clip down at the right moments.
D.J. Jefferson played his high school basketball for Minnesota Preparatory Academy (St. Paul, Minnesota). In the 2022 recruiting cycle, Jefferson was rated as the No. 1 player in the state of Minnesota, according to the On3 Consensus Rankings. He was also rated as the No. 89 overall prospect in the country, per those same rankings. He also had offers from the Memphis Tigers, Iowa State Cyclones, Virginia Tech Hokies, and the Creighton Blue Jays.
He initially signed with Tulsa in November of 2021, but was released and reopened his recruitment following a coaching change following the 2021-2022 season. His senior year of high school, Jefferson averaged 16.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 3.0 steals per game. As a junior, he made a significant jump in the national recruiting rankings after scoring 22 points per game.
Jefferson is believed to be the first ever Tennessee basketball player from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area.