What is the best individual, single-game performance in UConn history? | Page 4 | The Boneyard

What is the best individual, single-game performance in UConn history?

You could never do this question as a poll because not everyone knows the teams of decades past. I wonder what Jim Calhoun, Tom Moore or Phil Chardis would say?
 
Mike Honcho said:
I mean, it was very similar to how opponents respected Donovan and that's not surprising since Thabeet was even bigger at 7'3" and similarly mobile. He was a consensus second-team All-American and the Big East co-Player of the Year in 2009, and a two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year.

He was absolutely dominant and led us to a final four.
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Hasheem was not bigger than Donovan.
 
Wes B 40 vs Rutgers who had 39 for Rutgers in an epic show between the #1 and # 3 scorers in the country, UConn won in a nail biter that cost Rutgers an NIT bid when the NIT was a big deal. One of the best games I’ve ever seen in person along with the Dream Team going back to back over GTown and Cuse. Kimball’s insane 29 rebounds vs St Joe’s in a loss i think is still the NCAA tournament record.

But there have been a bunch of great individual performances since the beginning of the Calhoun era.
 
uconnfan68 said:
Oh the irony here... the biggest thing most remember from Donyell was missing free throws against Florida, not how good he was.
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Best single game ? First thought was Donyell with 42 against SJU. But which one ? He did it in 2 different games
 
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uconnfan68 said:
Oh the irony here... the biggest thing most remember from Donyell was missing free throws against Florida, not how good he was.
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I'd do a 2-for1 trade between those two games, leaving him with 40 pts & 18-20 from the line.
 
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In person ? Feb 19, 1977 at UVM....Tony Hanson--- Me a soph at dumpy nearby St Michaels Coll in Winooski- At the same old crummy bleacher gym they still have in Burlington, Vt., 47 years later; Tony Hanson incredible 42 points (or was it 46?), including 18 straight for UConn (or was it for both teams??), but UC could just never get the lead and lost a tight one to the Wombats,,,, 85-77.....
 
SubbaBub said:
2002 Caron vs Maryland, ainec
2nd is Kemba vs Kentucky in Maui.
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TIL I learned what ainec means.

I'm generally against such designations, but that doesn't let me off the hook from acknowledging that I remember it top-of-mind that way as well.

Kemba in Maui, is next top-of-mind.

What united those two in memory was the common recognition blurted our during each game: "OMG, we have the best player in college basketball."

In one case it seemed like an impossible utterance because it was near the beginning of the season, and I didn't think that was something that somebody that size could be.

In the other case, it was the game that ended a season.

Like all such threads,we have such a great storehouse of memories.

And Clingan definitely had a triple double.
 
Anyone remember that game in late December 1997 at the HCC where Rip had 27 or 28 in the first half?

It was also Calhoun's 500th win.
 
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Stew Crew said:
Defensively, it is hard to find a better performance than Sellers and DePriest against Shaq in 1991 Tournament. Shaq was a non-factor and got some garbage time points after game was decided to pad his stats.

Allen in 1995 against UCLA was also a great performance.

In terms of a heroic performance, Toraino Walker in the 1990 Big East Final was epic. Filling in for Sellers, he scored, rebounded, and neutralized Derrick Coleman.
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Didn’t Torraino also do the same against GTown in the semi?
 
huskyjawz said:
Didn’t Torraino also do the same against GTown in the semi?
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If I recall correctly, Sellers got hurt early in that game and Calhoun used both Cyrulik and Walker on Mourning. Against Syracuse, it was Walker's first ever start. He stepped in and played like a veteran. Really a tragedy. I think he has spent most of the past 30 years behind bars.

The UConn website used to have old pdf files with all the old box scores and team stats going back to the 80s. It all went away when the updated the website.
 
TribecaHusk said:
Donyell’s two 42 point games. But my personal fav is Machine Gun Kelly going toe to toe with the Pearl and upsetting Syracuse a second time in 85 at the Civic Center
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Mixed blessing. I always thought those Cuse wins helped save Perno's job.
 
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Matrim55 said:
An underrated one for me: Nadav vs. Georgetown on Jan 20, 1990. Georgetown came into that game 10-0, technically No. 2 in the nation but expected to be No. 1 since Kansas had lost earlier that day. It was the first time we'd beaten a team ranked that high, and Mike Gorman called it the best win in program history at the final buzzer. Beating Georgetown then was like beating UK and Duke at the same time.

Nadav had 21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals, and every single time Georgetown made a run, he was the guy who pushed us back ahead. This was the first and only time they had the lead all game, and watch what happened:



To this day it's still our biggest regular-season win. I honestly don't think we'll ever have a bigger one.
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I remember that game. I watched it at The Brickyard in Danbury. Everyone in the bar thought I was crazy. I said to someone, this is our night, this is our chance, and the boys delivered.
 
Matrim55 said:
An underrated one for me: Nadav vs. Georgetown on Jan 20, 1990. Georgetown came into that game 10-0, technically No. 2 in the nation but expected to be No. 1 since Kansas had lost earlier that day. It was the first time we'd beaten a team ranked that high, and Mike Gorman called it the best win in program history at the final buzzer. Beating Georgetown then was like beating UK and Duke at the same time.

Nadav had 21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals, and every single time Georgetown made a run, he was the guy who pushed us back ahead. This was the first and only time they had the lead all game, and watch what happened:



To this day it's still our biggest regular-season win. I honestly don't think we'll ever have a bigger one.
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Only underrated by those who did not witness it. Anyone who watched that game, that season and who understands the progression of UConn men's basketball to where it is today realizes that Nadav's performance that night was the first "holy crap, we really can compete with the big boys" moment for this program.

Anyone who points to the Syracuse win 5 nights earlier does not understand that we beat Syracuse every 3rd or 4th game at that time, no matter how individually talented they were, because Boeheim was an average-at-best in-game coach, and his teams consistently under-achieved and would lose head-scratchers. But Georgetown was a whole other kettle of fish. They were THE bullies of the Big East from the time Patrick Ewing pulled on that uniform for the first time right up until then. Georgetown wouldn't just beat you... they would try to take your manhood away. They tortured us for years, beating us in 15 out of the last 16 games played up until that night. You knew that in order to lay claim to any sort of advanced real estate in the conference, you had to beat Georgetown to be legit.

It was arguably the most important regular season game we have ever won... and there is no way we win it without Nadav. He did everything for us that night, but most importantly he made big play after big play after big play every time Georgetown threatened to wrestle the game away from us in the 2nd half. Watch it and you will see exactly what I mean. Up until then we almost always lost those games. We were the little brother who couldn't quite get over the hump. We took our lumps, a pat on the head, and a "see you when you are worthy" dismissal from Georgetown.

Until that night. But not THAT night. Not THAT game.

And everything has been different for this program since then. It can not be overstated the importance of that game to the trajectory of our program since that night. And Nadav's performance was the single biggest reason why. That was the night that started the legend of Nadav Henefeld.
 
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B1GEast said:
Caron Butlers performance vs Maryland in the NCAA tournament.

He was a warrior. The only reason we were in that game was cause of that dude.

He just never gave up. He left it all on the floor. Maryland just had some ballers. I think they won the tournament that year.

If there's one performance that shows the heart of a warrior, that's got to be one of them.
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Caron was incredible against Maryland. In a tight game, Okafor the freshman was called for defensive fouls when senior Baxter kept slamming into him near the hoop. Baxter got the benefit of those calls for sure. If Okafor had the star recognition he had as a junior and the same exact plays take place I don’t think he gets whistled for the fouls. In fact Baxter may have been called for fouling. Also that damn Steve Blake 3 late was a dagger. It really hurt because he didn’t take or make a high percentage during the season. You have to give him credit for making it. That was a long ride home.
 
cwh20 said:
Caron was incredible against Maryland. In a tight game, Okafor the freshman was called for defensive fouls when senior Baxter kept slamming into him near the hoop. Baxter got the benefit of those calls for sure. If Okafor had the star recognition he had as a junior and the same exact plays take place I don’t think he gets whistled for the fouls. In fact Baxter may have been called for fouling. Also that damn Steve Blake 3 late was a dagger. It really hurt because he didn’t take or make a high percentage during the season. You have to give him credit for making it. That was a long ride home.
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Incredibly, this Maryland loss was the only Final Four loss UConn has ever had.
 
Matrim55 said:
My cousin and I have been going back and forth on this one and we're having trouble coming up with something better than Clingan's game vs. Illinois.

I feel like the folks on this board will have some opinions.
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Emeka against heavily favored Duke.
 
Matrim55 said:
My cousin and I have been going back and forth on this one and we're having trouble coming up with something better than Clingan's game vs. Illinois.

I feel like the folks on this board will have some opinions.
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Let’s not forget freshman Corny Thompson dropping 30 pts and 12 rebounds on heavily favored URI and Sly Williams at the New Haven Coliseum. Uconn won it in OT.
 
IndyLives said:
Incredibly, this Maryland loss was the only Final Four loss UConn has ever had.
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That was an elite eight loss.

2009 in Detroit to Michigan St was the one final four loss.
 
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