Duke’s Toby Fournier’s dunks don’t define her (pre)game. But they do make a statement

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A dunk is a part of every Duke women’s basketball pregame.

It’s been a part of Toby Fournier’s preparations almost every game since she was 14 years old.

Its presence, or rather common lack thereof, has been the punchline of jokes for detractors. The fact that someone who dunks is a novelty, especially as easily as the sophomore forward, has been used to criticize the women’s game.

But for the sophomore All-ACC first-team forward, it’s always been a statement. And now her game has evolved to be more than just that.

“Dunking was what highlighted my game and brought people to watch,” Fournier, a 6-foot-2 forward, said. “There’s a lot of other things in my game. Getting that attention to be able to share other skills was cool. My game is very versatile.”

Fournier first went viral in 2019 when videos circulated of her throwing down two-handed dunks with ease, amassing millions of views. The 14-year-old from Toronto was soon doing so in games for Crestwood High School as well.

So much so that Fournier said LeBron James was aware of her dunks.

Now she’s evolved into a complete force for third-seeded Duke, which plays second-seeded LSU in Friday’s Sweet 16. Her 17.4 points per game, eight rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game are all team bests. Fournier, whom Lawson said was primarily “in a low-post war in her freshman year,” has extended her range to being a 34.6 percent 3-point shooter.

At 13, she noticed she could regularly touch the backboard. Then she noticed her reach extended to the rim. Despite her vertical, a lack of female dunkers as role models tempered her expectations for herself.

In 1984, Georgeann Wells, a 6-foot-7 center, became the first woman to dunk in a college basketball game. Lisa Leslie registered the first WNBA dunk in 2002 for the Los Angeles Sparks. To much fanfare, Tennessee’s Candace Parker was the first woman to dunk in an NCAA Tournament game in 2006. Brittney Griner dunked more than any woman in college and the WNBA.

But Fournier, who was born in 2005, wasn’t alive for or was too young to recall most of those.

“I never really tried (to dunk),” Forunier said. “I hadn’t really seen (women dunking). Obviously, with the men, yes, but just not in the women’s game. Eventually, I was getting up high enough that I was like, why not try?”

She started with tennis balls. Success. So once, after a high school practice, her legs felt fresh enough to try graduating from tennis balls to a basketball. Virality soon followed.

By the time she was 16, Fournier threw one down in an official FIBA game. Her novelty became a regularity. Lawson recruited her for her physical gifts but said she’s seen her offensive intelligence grow over her two seasons as Fournier has begun to understand how she can “leverage her advantages.”

Defensively, the forward’s athleticism has freed her lankiness from the lane to guard shiftier perimeter players while maintaining her length and leaping ability to hold dominion down low.

“She gives us a lot of diversity in the schemes we can employ because of how switchable she is,” Lawson said. “We definitely utilize that in different matchups to our advantage. She’s a great rebounder as well, and just overall a great competitor.”

Lawson has shepherded Fournier’s evolution to a complete player with her detail-oriented teaching. Dunking is an acrobatic, often wild show of expression. Lawson’s coaching philosophy lives in the minutiae, in incremental gains and minor tweaks shaping the overall quality.

Details that Fournier didn’t previously think mattered. But now she better appreciates the tutelage of the former 2005 WNBA champion with the Sacramento Monarchs, and the first women’s assistant coach for the Boston Celtics in 2019-20.

“You might not think that certain things matter, like it’s too small,” Fournier said. “Like the angle of the screen, if I’m two inches off, what is that gonna do? But it really does impact the game. (Lawson) is just a genius.”

Fournier came off the bench her entire first season, averaging 13.2 points per game and 5.3 rebounds a night and winning ACC freshman of the year.

Since becoming a starter as a sophomore, she has improved her shooting quantity from deep, her rebounding, and has become an all-conference player. She has yet to punish the rim in an actual game so far in her college career, though she wants to. But it doesn’t stop her from doing so in pre-game.

It’s a statement that she can. That she’s able. An outburst of energy that permeates pre-game to her fellow Blue Devils.

“It gets us all super hyped, especially me and Toby,” senior guard Taina Mair said. “After she dunks, we start by pushing each other and just celebrating.”

“It’s very fun at the beginning of the game,” senior guard Ashlon Jackson said. “It lets out a lot of nerves for us, like, all right, let’s have fun.”

For Fournier, her dunking has become just an ornament on her game, not the entire tree. The notion of dunks being absent from the women’s game, and therefore making it less exciting than the men’s, is a fading one in her estimation.

Though she’s turned her focus to becoming a more well-rounded player, she still dunks every pregame for her teammates, but also so that others can see her do it.

And so they can feel empowered to replicate it.

“I’m not the only one who can do it either,” Forunier said. “There are a lot of women who are starting to dunk. It’s just a new generation.

Dunking is just a statement in general. Showing that we can also get up there.”

So what of the people who chide women’s basketball, saying it’d be more exciting if the rims were lowered to eight feet, to theoretically encourage more above-the-rim play in games?

Fournier paused, sat back in her chair, and raised one eyebrow, scoffing at the audacity.

She let out a sly smirk.

“I don’t think so, I have no problem dunking on 10.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Duke Blue Devils, Women’s College Basketball

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