Player Games

[Blue Blood]

A lot of talk this week about Marquette being the Solo Ball game. Seems that perceived role players are often associated with one game which makes me think of Solo returns next year this may not be remembered that way. Superstars have careers and are not remembered for an individual game. What are your favorite "player" games of all time. I'll go with a recent example being in the building for the Joey California Georgetown game was electric.

 

[YearoftheHusky]

Stewart against Marquette hitting big threes in the BEF last year quickly came to mind.

 

[CTBasketball]

• Rashad Anderson (and Ben Gordon) v. Alabama in the 2004 Elite Eight
• Emeka Okafor at Arizona in 2002
• Ray Allen v. Villanova at Gampel in 1996 (he had a lot of great games, but this one sticks out in a W)
• And for whatever reason I always remember the 1988 NIT Final with Lyman DePriest’s dunk in the 1H

 

[Get a Job]

Brimah's 40-burger

 

[hansonel-amin]

Maybe in a different way ... Cam getting into it with Armando Bacot at the Garden, and then firing up the whole place.

 

[boog204]

Some of these just live rent-free in my head. YMMV

For "role" players:

Jamal Coombs-McDaniel averaging 21/gm over a three-game stretch in 2011 comes to mind.
Rash with his three barrage against 'Bama
Denham scoring 101 points in high school
Eric Cobb going for 13 and 13 beating Cuse in one of our last-ever meetings
Brimah's 40
Ricky against AI as a Freshmen and 13 against Duke
Toraino in the BET as a Freshmen
Cup Cormier vs. NC State in his one year here. Think he had 14 or 15 and was unstoppable off the bounce. Everyone thought he should start over KO who was really struggling.
Doug Wrenn got one start against GTown. I think he came out hit an ill-advised three, then an alley-oop, then later Khalid threw one of the glass for a dunk. Thought Wrenn was going to be the answer and our next star. Seemed like the next day he was back in the doghouse and gone at the end of the year.
Tony Robertson - I think versus BC? where he had back-to-back monstrous tomahawk dunks
Hilton - There was a game against Seton Hall where he blocked like 9 shots and injured one of their players. Fans were irate. So he just blocked more shots.

For major players:
Donyell's 42 and 20-20 Free Throw Game
Ray 36 against UCLA.
Khalid's first game against Yale. This one is burned in my memory because he just dominated and commanded the floor the first time he put on the uni.
Caron's 34 against Maryland and his triple-double freshmen year where he threw the behind-the-back pass while falling out of bounds. Special mention, too, for the game against Vandy early in his sophomore year where he literally stole the ball three straight times for dunks and Kevin Stallings looked ready to retire from coaching.
Ben's 36 against 'Bama
Charlie V - after being suspended, finally getting his first minutes and hitting like a 26 foot 3 the first time he touched the ball.
Nadav vs. GTown and Mourning
Deandre Daniels vs. Iowa State
Thabeet - Triple double against Providence where they were afraid to shoot.
AJ Price 36 against Marquette and that ankle breaker
Jeff Adrien - Freshmen year against Nova he just physically dominated. One play I remember is him just ripping the ball away, knocking their guy to the ground, and him just stepping over him.
Kemba's first game against Kentucky when we went on like a 20-2 run.
Bazz versus Nova where he hit like 3 or 4 straight deep three's when it looked like we were going to squander the lead
Adama hitting three's against Miami to start off the final four game
Donovan against Illinois

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Of course everyone remembers Cardiac Kemba vs Pitt but what about the offensive rebound by Jamal Coombs-McDaniel to make that happen!

 

[Dutch Boyd]

• Rashad Anderson (and Ben Gordon) v. Alabama in the 2004 Elite Eight
• Emeka Okafor at Arizona in 2002
• Ray Allen v. Villanova at Gampel in 1996 (he had a lot of great games, but this one sticks out in a W)
• And for whatever reason I always remember the 1988 NIT Final with Lyman DePriest’s dunk in the 1H

That Arizona game out there is still one of my favorites. The Ray Allen vs Villanova was great too. I was attending UConn at the time. Pretty sure the game was delayed by one day because of a huge snow storm we camped out in.

 

[Frank06830]

Some of these just live rent-free in my head. YMMV

For "role" players:

Jamal Coombs-McDaniel averaging 21/gm over a three-game stretch in 2011 comes to mind.
Rash with his three barrage against 'Bama
Denham scoring 101 points in high school
Eric Cobb going for 13 and 13 beating Cuse in one of our last-ever meetings
Brimah's 40
Ricky against AI as a Freshmen and 13 against Duke
Toraino in the BET as a Freshmen
Cup Cormier vs. NC State in his one year here. Think he had 14 or 15 and was unstoppable off the bounce. Everyone thought he should start over KO who was really struggling.
Doug Wrenn got one start against GTown. I think he came out hit an ill-advised three, then an alley-oop, then later Khalid threw one of the glass for a dunk. Thought Wrenn was going to be the answer and our next star. Seemed like the next day he was back in the doghouse and gone at the end of the year.
Tony Robertson - I think versus BC? where he had back-to-back monstrous tomahawk dunks
Hilton - There was a game against Seton Hall where he blocked like 9 shots and injured one of their players. Fans were irate. So he just blocked more shots.

For major players:
Donyell's 42 and 20-20 Free Throw Game
Ray 36 against UCLA.
Khalid's first game against Yale. This one is burned in my memory because he just dominated and commanded the floor the first time he put on the uni.
Caron's 34 against Maryland and his triple-double freshmen year where he threw the behind-the-back pass while falling out of bounds. Special mention, too, for the game against Vandy early in his sophomore year where he literally stole the ball three straight times for dunks and Kevin Stallings looked ready to retire from coaching.
Ben's 36 against 'Bama
Charlie V - after being suspended, finally getting his first minutes and hitting like a 26 foot 3 the first time he touched the ball.
Nadav vs. GTown and Mourning
Deandre Daniels vs. Iowa State
Thabeet - Triple double against Providence where they were afraid to shoot.
AJ Price 36 against Marquette and that ankle breaker
Jeff Adrien - Freshmen year against Nova he just physically dominated. One play I remember is him just ripping the ball away, knocking their guy to the ground, and him just stepping over him.
Kemba's first game against Kentucky when we went on like a 20-2 run.
Bazz versus Nova where he hit like 3 or 4 straight deep three's when it looked like we were going to squander the lead
Adama hitting three's against Miami to start off the final four game
Donovan against Illinois

You are scaring me. I can’t remember my phone number

 

[StllH8L8ner]

• Ray Allen v. Villanova at Gampel in 1996 (he had a lot of great games, but this one sticks out in a W)

This one sticks out for me. Didn’t the game get moved back because of a snow storm or something?

Ray came out a little lackluster, Coach sat him for a few minutes to settle him down, then he went back in and caught fire. Remember Dickie V yelling “It’s payback time” like it was yesterday.

 

[boog204]

This one sticks out for me. Didn’t the game get moved back because of a snow storm or something?

Ray came out a little lackluster, Coach sat him for a few minutes to settle him down, then he went back in and caught fire. Remember Dickie V yelling “It’s payback time” like it was yesterday.

Yep, huge snowstorm cancelled the scheduled game and this was the revenge game after 'Nova destroyed us the previous year with Kittles going nuts. Ray came out and was forcing everything and got benched. Then came back in and was hitting three's and had a couple huge dunks. I think we went up almost 15-20 and it looked like a blowout and then Nova came back and made it tight.