Originally Posted by
Tom B.
And it wasn't just that one game. You want clutch? Check out Laettner's career field goal and and free throw percentages in NCAA Regional Final games. In four career games with trips to the Final Four on the line, Laettner shot an utterly astonishing 91.17% (31-for-34) from the floor and 91.89% (34-for-37) from the free throw line (oh yeah, his team won all of those games, too). Kentucky was just the icing on the cake. Remember his 24 points and 10 rebounds as a freshman against Georgetown and Alonzo Mourning? Or the overtime buzzer-beater against UConn in 1990? The man absolutely owned the NCAA Regional Finals like no one before or since.
His Final Four performances weren't too shabby, either. There was his 28-point performance against UNLV in 1991, which included the two game-winning free throws with 12.7 seconds left. Fighting through exhaustion to post a double-double (18 points and 10 rebounds, including 12-for-12 from the free throw line) in the title game two nights later against Kansas. Shaking off a bad first half and coming back to score 19 in the 1992 title game against Michigan. He even played OK in the disastrous 1990 final against UNLV (15 points, 9 boards), to go along with the 19 and 14 he posted in the semifinal win over Arkansas.
As far as I'm concerned, the conversation begins and ends with Laettner and everyone else is fighting for a not-all-that-close second place.