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

[TheChamps990411]

I love Caron and that was an incredible second half performance but it carried them to a loss and Maryland hung 90 on them.

Clingan's line of 22 pts, 10 rebs, 5 blocks, 3 steals is an awesome line but it doesn't even begin to describe how dominant he was against Illinois. The Illini were 0-19 against Clingan and Illinois scored 14 points for the entire game when Clingan was on the court. You probably have to go back to Bill Walton for any defensive performance that can maybe rival that in a high stakes game.

I think it might be the greatest defensive performance ive ever seen. He completely dominated that game even beyond what could be quantified by stats. Just his presence on the floor effected that entire game.

 

[Gurleyman]

wouldn’t have been the all time greatest since the stakes weren’t high enough…

if Newton took final shot vs. KU instead of a hobbled Spencer and hit a walk off game winning 3 at Allen Fieldhouse it would have capped off a legendary performance.

I’m still annoyed we didn’t give him that opportunity…

Perhaps a quibble, since we don’t know for sure - but Newton had the ball in his hands and threaded the needle with the pass to Spencer as KU tried to jump the passing lane. I think he had the opportunity to keep it and go for the hero shot and easily say that the pass wasn’t there. Whatever play we ran, the fallback option that day (and all season) was Newton creating something at the end of the clock.

I said this in real time right after the game, but I thought that passing it there was a good sign for the culture of the team, that Newton was setting the tone of not caring who gets the credit and trusting your teammates, even on “your night”. Cam did the same sort of thing in the opening game by taking one shot and passing all over the place.

That’s basically how the season played out - I almost never thought “selfish shot” all season. An occasional heat check or Hassan maybe being a smidge too aggressive off the bench every so often. But very very rare.

 

[Gurleyman]

Calling it the greatest is an overreach, since he only had 21, but here’s one that’s criminally underrated: Rip vs. Gonzaga.

The reason is the context and the in-game circumstances. If you didn’t live it, you’ll never understand the pressure of that game. It is seriously maybe my least favorite sporting event I’ve ever watched, at least for 39:55. The bracket opened up for us big time, Gonzaga wasn’t Gonzaga yet, they were just some random 11 seed school that John Stockton played for, and we had a red carpet to the Final Four, at last. Except, Gonzaga wouldn’t go away.

The in game circumstances were that Khalid was having a dumpster fire of a game. He shot 0-12 and dribbled off his own leg out of bounds down the stretch. And the guy Khalid was guarding (Quentin Hall) was lighting it up. With KEA off the rails, Gonzaga went ahead and threw a box and one on Rip and didn’t give him any room to breathe, and he shot 9-16 against it, and he found Jake twice down the stretch for layups when we were only up 2. And then he had to guard a legit scorer (Richie Frahm) and locked him up (Ricky locked up Santangelo).

Free did well in a supporting role, especially on the boards, but Rip essentially had to carry us over the FF hurdle against a box and one with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and a fan base wound so tight we had diamonds in our stool.

I’ve always appreciated that game from him. A loss there and who knows - maybe we are still sitting on zero titles.

 

[HooperScooper]

20 of 20 from the line

That was a different game, not in the Big East Tournament. Donyell scored 42 points against St. John's twice that season. I was at the 20-20 free throw game at MSG. That was sometime in January. Then a couple months later he scored 42 points against St. John's again in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals. Donyell was amazing that season.

 

[Gurleyman]

A random one...

Okafor at UNC in 2004. 29 & 13 with six blocks against Sean May, who many people considered the second best big man in the country. May was 3/14 from the floor.

We were #1, UNC was somewhere in the top 10. This was their core that won the title the following season.

Gordon had just broken his nose and was wearing mask. He shot horribly. Okafor and Rashad carried us and brought us back from a sizeable deficit but ultimately we lost on a late three from Rashad McCants.

Okafor was as good as any Husky has ever been that day, dominating both ends of the floor against another elite big.

Was trying to think of Emeka’s signature game. One that didn’t have high stakes was his freshman year at Arizona - he finished with something like 18-15-9 and CBS had him for 12 blocks (Arizona stat crew was asleep at the switch). We won something like 104-98 in overtime, so he probably gave up some baskets too (Channing Frye was on that AZ team). It was also Ben Gordon’s breakout game with 24 or so. Our All-American (Caron) was quiet and might have been the eighth best player on the floor that day. But he kicked it into another gear a month or so later.

Emeka’s shoulder stinger game in the Elite Eight against Alabama maybe could have been one - he maybe had four or five blocks in the first 10 minutes, two on one play and one where he went up with one hand for a block, forced the Alabama guard to try a double pump reverse, and then he blocked it with his lower hand. Crazy defensive play. But Gordon and Rashad had the offensive end taken care of.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Ok it's not the best individual performance but I kinda hate how overlooked Hasheem Thabeet is after a disappointing professional career. He was an absolute terror at UConn and every team had to gameplan for him (most unsuccessfully).

Mid February of 2009 we played a hot Seton Hall team (winners of their past 5 games) and he put up a monster line of 25 points, 20 rebounds, and 9 blocks (just missing his second triple double of the season) in a 62-54 win in Newark.

Jeff Adrien had 14 points and 15 rebounds in the same game.

Again, not an all time performance but Jeff had a great NCAA tournament game where he was draining the foul line jumper with ease. Think it was against Texas A&M in the second round.. He went 11/16 from the field for 23 pts and 8 rebounds. We crushed them so it didn't matter but it was beautiful to witness.

 

[I Bleed Blue]

Most of Kemba's 2011 run in March-April could be mentioned. He was on fire.

But I'll nominate Shabazz in the Sweet Sixteen (25-5-3) and Elite Eight (25-6-4) at MSG in 2014. Bro was feeling it during that run. Gary Harris and Izzo both mentioned that Bazz willed us to victory. He wasn't gonna let us lose that year.

 

[bugs]

Richard Hamilton versus Duke in 1999! The game he played was amazing! When you factor in the situation that Duke was not losing to anybody else that year in the tournament(except Uconn). Then when think of the heart-breaking losses to Florida(free throws missed) and Duke(OT loss) in the Elite 8 in the not so distant past. Also the loss to eventual Champion UCLA in West Regional final(Elite 8). Then the dominant 1996 Uconn(30-2) team losing to Mississippi St in the Sweet 16. Then when consider the clutch shots he made with the game winding down. Again, the game was still in the balance! They needed everything to finally win the University's 1st national championship! The winner is Richard (Rip) Hamilton!

 

[Huskybass]

Not one of the best performances, but Christian Vital had some memorable ones in 2020 down the stretch.

Felt like he should be mentioned.

He was insanely good once it all clicked.

 

[johnhuskies95]

Ok it's not the best individual performance but I kinda hate how overlooked Hasheem Thabeet is after a disappointing professional career. He was an absolute terror at UConn and every team had to gameplan for him (most unsuccessfully).

Mid February of 2009 we played a hot Seton Hall team (winners of their past 5 games) and he put up a monster line of 25 points, 20 rebounds, and 9 blocks (just missing his second triple double of the season) in a 62-54 win in Newark.

Jeff Adrien had 14 points and 15 rebounds in the same game.

Again, not an all time performance but Jeff had a great NCAA tournament game where he was draining the foul line jumper with ease. Think it was against Texas A&M in the second round.. He went 11/16 from the field for 23 pts and 8 rebounds. We crushed them so it didn't matter but it was beautiful to witness.

Thabeet's impact was truly impossible to measure, as cliche as it was. People would refuse to go inside the paint against him out of fear of him. I remember a game against Notre Dame maybe his sophomore year where their guys were pump faking 4 or 5 times before passing back out if they happened to get into the lane.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Thabeet's impact was truly impossible to measure, as cliche as it was. People would refuse to go inside the paint against him out of fear of him. I remember a game against Notre Dame maybe his sophomore year where their guys were pump faking 4 or 5 times before passing back out if they happened to get into the lane.

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.

 

[Kitaman]

Ricky Moore dook 99

 

[bazz&boujee]

Bouk did drop 40

 

[UCTitleTown]

Oh the irony here... the biggest thing most remember from Donyell was missing free throws against Florida, not how good he was.

I always felt he should've stayed another year to atone for that, but many still remember him for those misses rather than his greatness. He could do it all. Tough way to end a career. Kemba and Donyell are my two favorite Huskies.

 

[Sibeerian]

Calling it the greatest is an overreach, since he only had 21, but here’s one that’s criminally underrated: Rip vs. Gonzaga.

The reason is the context and the in-game circumstances. If you didn’t live it, you’ll never understand the pressure of that game. It is seriously maybe my least favorite sporting event I’ve ever watched, at least for 39:55. The bracket opened up for us big time, Gonzaga wasn’t Gonzaga yet, they were just some random 11 seed school that John Stockton played for, and we had a red carpet to the Final Four, at last. Except, Gonzaga wouldn’t go away.

The in game circumstances were that Khalid was having a dumpster fire of a game. He shot 0-12 and dribbled off his own leg out of bounds down the stretch. And the guy Khalid was guarding (Quentin Hall) was lighting it up. With KEA off the rails, Gonzaga went ahead and threw a box and one on Rip and didn’t give him any room to breathe, and he shot 9-16 against it, and he found Jake twice down the stretch for layups when we were only up 2. And then he had to guard a legit scorer (Richie Frahm) and locked him up (Ricky locked up Santangelo).

Free did well in a supporting role, especially on the boards, but Rip essentially had to carry us over the FF hurdle against a box and one with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and a fan base wound so tight we had diamonds in our stool.

I’ve always appreciated that game from him. A loss there and who knows - maybe we are still sitting on zero titles.

hard upvote for "diamonds in our stool"

 

[Sibeerian]

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?

 

[Waquoit]

I always felt he should've stayed another year to atone for that,

And give up $40M+? That's a lot of atoning.

 

[superjohn]

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.

Hasheem was not bigger than Donovan.

 

[cohenzone]

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.

 

[DRBackup]

Oh the irony here... the biggest thing most remember from Donyell was missing free throws against Florida, not how good he was.

Best single game ? First thought was Donyell with 42 against SJU. But which one ? He did it in 2 different games

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Oh the irony here... the biggest thing most remember from Donyell was missing free throws against Florida, not how good he was.

I'd do a 2-for1 trade between those two games, leaving him with 40 pts & 18-20 from the line.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Newton this year vs Kansas was dope

 

[Superhuskies]

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.....

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

2002 Caron vs Maryland, ainec
2nd is Kemba vs Kentucky in Maui.

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.

 

[slepers]

Jim Calhoun out coaching Coach K in 99 championship