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

[Matrim55]

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.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Ray against UCLA in 1995.

 

[SubbaBub]

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

 

[John]

Caron vs Maryland, ainec.

</end thread>

 

[JAdams4Reel]

Bouk against creighton

 

[superjohn]

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.

I've been saying since March 30th Clingan vs. Illinois is the best individual UConn performance I've ever seen.

Okafor got credited with a lot more blocks than Clingan but Clingan is the most dominant defensive player we've ever had.

 

[Griffman]

Donyell scoring 42 against the Johnies at quarterfinals of the Big East tournament.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

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…

 

[lonsharkin51]

Rod Sellers vs. Laettner's head

 

[Mr. French]

Some great choices off the top of the dome!

Kemba SDSU was one, BG in the BE tourney…Caron of course. There’s some great ones.

Ray vs UCLA another unfortunately in defeat.

 

[upstater]

Jalen Adams 34 at Oklahoma St
Ben Gordon 36 v. Alabama in tournament.

They shot 60% from the field and 3s and couldn't be stopped.

Caron's performance stands out.

 

[willie99]

Ray in 95
Caron in 02
Jimmy C in 99
The program in 1990 in the week we beat Cuse and GTown in the HCC
Kemba's 11 game finish

I can go on and on and on and on, but it really all started in 1990. So I'm going with The Program

 

[GiladKatzDeli]

Hat tip to one of the OG's, Art Quimby, who was a rebounding machine and scored 49 against BC back in 1954. Not sure how many rebounds he had in the game, but he averaged about 22 boards that year.

 

[DOZE860]

For me it has to be AJ Price going for 36 against Marquette, to get Calhoun is 800th win.

 

[businesslawyer]

Ray in 95
Caron in 02
Jimmy C in 99
The program in 1990 in the week we beat Cuse and GTown in the HCC
Kemba's 11 game finish

I can go on and on and on and on, but it really all started in 1990. So I'm going with The Program

Particularly good post in a thread of good posts.

If you want one answer, with the importance of the game and the quality of the opponent being factored in, it was Caron's performance in the loss to Maryland in the Carrier Dome. That doesn't mean DC wasn't great against Illinois. But he didn't have to carry his team the way Caron did.

 

[MrSec238]

Apostolos against Georgetown

 

[boog204]

Jalen Adams 34 at Oklahoma St
Ben Gordon 36 v. Alabama in tournament.

They shot 60% from the field and 3s and couldn't be stopped.

Caron's performance stands out.

Didn't Jalen have about 32 turnovers in that game?

Edit: Just looked it up... 10 turnovers. Although my memory is that most were in the first half where we were horrid.

 

[Stew Crew]

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.

 

[Matrim55]

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.

 

[superjohn]

Particularly good post in a thread of good posts.

If you want one answer, with the importance of the game and the quality of the opponent being factored in, it was Caron's performance in the loss to Maryland in the Carrier Dome. That doesn't mean DC wasn't great against Illinois. But he didn't have to carry his team the way Caron did.

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.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Hat tip to one of the OG's, Art Quimby, who was a rebounding machine and scored 49 against BC back in 1954. Not sure how many rebounds he had in the game, but he averaged about 22 boards that year.

He has the most mind boggling season stats of anyone. He Lead the nation in rebounding one year and finished second another.

Toby Kimball’s 26-28 rebounds in an NCAA tournament game against a top 10 St Joesph's team that was a home game for them has to be up there

 

[ucp990411]

Wes Bialosuknia with 50 pts vs Maine in 1967. Would have been about 62 with a 3 point line.

 

[boog204]

Some that come to mind...

Donyell's 42 against St. Johns in the BET.
Caron vs. Maryland... absolutely carried us.
Ray's 36 against UCLA
Clingan vs. Illinois
Shabazz 25pts in 25 min against Nova in the tourney... Think he had a stretch when it got tight where he hit 4 straight threes to extend the lead
Ricky's first half against Duke in 99
Rashad's first half 3 barrage against 'Bama in 04. Think he was 6-6?
Rip vs. Duke in 99... 27-7 in the Natty and huge shot after huge shot.
AJ Price 36 vs. Marquette

Slightly obscure ones:

Khalid's first game at UConn against Yale. He went for 23-5-5stls and was like 10-12 from the field. We looked forward to his debut and he was better than advertised and I believe without question that his arrival completely changed the vibe of those teams.
Nadav versus either BU or California in the 89 tourney. The ultimate dominate a game without having the stats to show it game. He got steals, deflections, kept rebounds alive, had a ton of hockey assists, and just controlled the game.
And the only loss I've ever accepted and was happy about, 97 against Kansas starting 3 freshmen with a soph Rash. At the time people thought Kansas was a surefire championship team and we came out flying with Rash and Rip scoring from deep and KFree around the hoop. We ended up losing but that loss told me that that group could do some really special things.

 

[huskyharry]

Dom Perno stealing the ball from Bill Bradley and securing the victory over Princeton to get to the elite 8.

 

[Jaydumo20]

It's not #1. Many of the above don't need to be restated. (Some of nadavs games were my earliest memories of uconn greatness)
But I loved Joey C's game against gtown. That one handed scoop shot? Ha