FGCU’s Rivers showing off skills in College Slam Dunk Championship

If you’ve been to a FGCU men’s basketball game you’ve seen Dakota Rivers dunk.

If you haven’t, you’re in luck.

Rivers is competing in the College Slam Dunk Championship in Phoenix on Thursday night.

The 6′ 8″ forward is one of eight players from across the NCAA invited to compete.

“I was like no way,” Rivers said. “I was like what, like one out of eight people in all of college. It’s amazing and to be a part of the school, which represents dunk city. I think it’s amazing.”

The fifth-year Eagle has come a long way from his first dunk which was in an AAU game when he was 12-years-old.

“In the middle of the game, he just throws it up and I’m like, ‘Okay, I guess I’ve got to do it,’ and I just dunked it. That was one of the best feelings of my life. So that was pretty cool.”

Now he’s known for a mid-game slam, after years of practice.

“For the dunk contest, a lot of hours. In general, just like dunks in general, I would say years just working on different things working on different motions and different techniques and stuff.”

All that work has earned him the opportunity to show off his stuff on a national stage.

He’s the first to represent FGCU in the dunk contest and hopes to be the first to bring home the crown.

“I love good competition. I don’t want to walk into something and already know I’m gonna win. You know what I mean? I want a good fight for sure.”

Rivers also wants the competition to show professional teams in the states and overseas a glimpse of what he brings to the court.

The competition, or the return of dunk city as Rivers calls it, begins at 8 p.m. on Thursday.