Greatest single-game performances in Duke history

[Kedsy]

help me out - I am sure I am missing some other recent ones, plus any from the pre-Coach K era

I was in the arena for the Christian Laettner game against Kentucky and the JJ Redick game against Texas. Both pretty amazing. I'd put Ryan's game yesterday above JJ's game (because of the haven't-played-in-two-months thing) but below Christian's. I'd probably also put it above Jason Williams's gone-in-54-seconds game because, frankly, Jason had played pretty poorly until about a minute to go in that game.

I would also nominate the Gene Banks game, Coach K's first home game against UNC (a team that appeared in the national championship game that year). Banks scored 25 (out of Duke's 66 points) including a shot at the buzzer to send the game into OT and the rebound putback to win it in OT.

Also, and I know he's not so popular around here these days, but you have to consider Austin Rivers against UNC last season as one of the all-time best single-game Duke performances.

[devildeac]

Shoot, I'll even post it here, too, 'cuz if K (and Adam Gold!) think it's true (read to end of article), then it must be true () :

I'll put this in a couple places so no one misses it:

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/kelly-s...ages/12175963/

[Kedsy]

Shoot, I'll even post it here, too, 'cuz if K (and Adam Gold!) think it's true (read to end of article), then it must be true () :

I'll put this in a couple places so no one misses it:

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/kelly-s...ages/12175963/

Something's wrong with your link.

[Duke76]

I was in the arena for the Christian Laettner game against Kentucky and the JJ Redick game against Texas. Both pretty amazing. I'd put Ryan's game yesterday above JJ's game (because of the haven't-played-in-two-months thing) but below Christian's. I'd probably also put it above Jason Williams's gone-in-54-seconds game because, frankly, Jason had played pretty poorly until about a minute to go in that game.

I would also nominate the Gene Banks game, Coach K's first home game against UNC (a team that appeared in the national championship game that year). Banks scored 25 (out of Duke's 66 points) including a shot at the buzzer to send the game into OT and the rebound putback to win it in OT.

Also, and I know he's not so popular around here these days, but you have to consider Austin Rivers against UNC last season as one of the all-time best single-game Duke performances.

all time performance anywhere and for its impact and what it did for our program...but in Cameron we do indeed have so many to choose from...would like to see a video put together of all the great ones

[Wander]

Context must be taken into account. With that in mind, if this ends up being the first game in a string of wins that ends with a national championship, I think it's above everything (in the K era) except for the Laettner-Kentucky game. Otherwise, I'd put it behind JJ dropping 41 on Texas, and maybe the following game, which I think deserves serious consideration: Nolan scoring a (then) career high against Baylor to put us in the Final Four 30 years after his dad's Louisville team. Without that, we have one less national championship and Duke is in an eight year Final Four drought.

[jimsumner]

Depends on how we define the variables.

If we factor in the long absence, I cannot come up with any Duke parallels. Not sure I can come up with any college parallels.

If we just look at the game without that context, it was an exceptional performance but one that has been bettered in Duke history.

Ironically, many of the best individual performances in Duke history came away from Cameron, e.g. Laettner's game against Kentucky, JJ v. Texas, Jason Williams against Kentucky, Dick Groat's great game against Tulane in the Dixie Classic.

Verga scored 41 against Ohio State.

Randy Denton had some jaw-dropping games, 33 points and 18 rebounds against Gil McGregor and Wake Forest in 1971 being an example. Denton had 28 and 21 against Dan Issel and Kentucky, 23 and 25 against Northwestern.

Let me throw three more into the hopper.

1-3-67. Vic Bubas suspends darn near the whole team for a curfew violation. Bob Verga and a bunch of guys named Moe take on Penn State. Verga goes 16-31 from the field, scores 38 points and Duke somehow escapes with an 89-84 win. Verga was the only starter not suspended for that game.

12-4, 1976, Duke v. Washington. Tate Armstrong scores 35 points on 13-23, 9-9 shooting and nails a buzzer-beater to beat Washington 83-81. 35 points and a game-winning buzzer-beater.

And the game that might have been the best individual performance in Duke history, Laettner included. 1964 East Regionals. Third-ranked Duke against seventh-ranked Villanova. Duke won with unexpected ease, 87-73 behind a 43-point performance by Jeff Mullins. 28 of those came in the first half, including a mid-court buzzer-beater. Mullins also shut down Villanova's leading scorer, Richie Moore, holding him to eight points. Mullins shot 19-28, 5-6 and pulled down 12 rebounds.

Of course, none of these relate directly to what Ryan did yesterday. You have to go to NBA guys like Chamberlain and Jordan to find guys coming off long injuries with the kind of performance we saw from Kelly.

[ricks68]

Depends on how we define the variables.

If we factor in the long absence, I cannot come up with any Duke parallels. Not sure I can come up with any college parallels.

If we just look at the game without that context, it was an exceptional performance but one that has been bettered in Duke history.

Ironically, many of the best individual performances in Duke history came away from Cameron, e.g. Laettner's game against Kentucky, JJ v. Texas, Jason Williams against Kentucky, Dick Groat's great game against Tulane in the Dixie Classic.

Verga scored 41 against Ohio State.

Randy Denton had some jaw-dropping games, 33 points and 18 rebounds against Gil McGregor and Wake Forest in 1971 being an example. Denton had 28 and 21 against Dan Issel and Kentucky, 23 and 25 against Northwestern.

Let me throw three more into the hopper.

1-3-67. Vic Bubas suspends darn near the whole team for a curfew violation. Bob Verga and a bunch of guys named Moe take on Penn State. Verga goes 16-31 from the field, scores 38 points and Duke somehow escapes with an 89-84 win. Verga was the only starter not suspended for that game.

12-4, 1976, Duke v. Washington. Tate Armstrong scores 35 points on 13-23, 9-9 shooting and nails a buzzer-beater to beat Washington 83-81. 35 points and a game-winning buzzer-beater.

And the game that might have been the best individual performance in Duke history, Laettner included. 1964 East Regionals. Third-ranked Duke against seventh-ranked Villanova. Duke won with unexpected ease, 87-73 behind a 43-point performance by Jeff Mullins. 28 of those came in the first half, including a mid-court buzzer-beater. Mullins also shut down Villanova's leading scorer, Richie Moore, holding him to eight points. Mullins shot 19-28, 5-6 and pulled down 12 rebounds.

Of course, none of these relate directly to what Ryan did yesterday. You have to go to NBA guys like Chamberlain and Jordan to find guys coming off long injuries with the kind of performance we saw from Kelly.

Jim,

Man, I was just going to put that one in there and you beat me to it. Also, of note is that there was no 3 point shot then, and the vast majority of those shots would have been 3 pointers today. I was there, and on some of them, he would take the ball down after the inbounds pass and take a few steps past mid-court and bang! The big chant back then was "two Verga, two!" while holding up two fingers like a "V".

When I first put up the post that started this stuff, I had a feeling that it would generate a whole bunch of comparisons, etc., so for those of you that are not aware of a nice additional review by Al Featherston, here it is:

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...CLID=205385854

The main point of my original post, however, was the statement alluding to the fact that we should all appreciate just how lucky we are to have experienced such a great program that has produced, and surely will continue to produce, so many exciting moments by such fine people-----from the athletes and coaches, themselves, to all of those other people related to the program, the Crazies, alums, and Duke in general.

ricks

[lawdevil]

Laetner's game against UK has to tbe number one. But I am surprised noone has mentioned JJ's performance as a freshman against NCState in the 2003 ACC Championship. Duke was down about 15 with 10 minutes to go when JJ went off and scored something like 23 in the last ten minutes! It was incredible - especially for a freshman who had not had a very good tournament to that point.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Jim,

Man, I was just going to put that one in there and you beat me to it. Also, of note is that there was no 3 point shot then, and the vast majority of those shots would have been 3 pointers today. I was there, and on some of them, he would take the ball down after the inbounds pass and take a few steps past mid-court and bang! The big chant back then was "two Verga, two!" while holding up two fingers like a "V".

When I first put up the post that started this stuff, I had a feeling that it would generate a whole bunch of comparisons, etc., so for those of you that are not aware of a nice additional review by Al Featherston, here it is:

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...CLID=205385854

The main point of my original post, however, was the statement alluding to the fact that we should all appreciate just how lucky we are to have experienced such a great program that has produced, and surely will continue to produce, so many exciting moments by such fine people-----from the athletes and coaches, themselves, to all of those other people related to the program, the Crazies, alums, and Duke in general.

ricks

I think this is the overriding point to any discussion of which was the best at Duke (individual games, individual players, coaches, etc.). When the pool of games and individual or team team performances is so rich, it's not about which was the best of the best so much as it is about appreciating the depth of talent and accomplishments. That these accomplishments have occurred where players actually go to class and many attain admirable grades for their academic performance is indeed worthy of celebration.

[nmduke2001]

31 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. 10 for 10 from the field. 10 for 10 from the foul line. History at stake and he literally came through perfectly.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...3607/index.htm

[Monmouth77]

In terms of performances in Cameron, I think the all-time best by Redick (better to my mind than his 41 in the Garden -- and I attended both) was his 38 against Chris Paul's Wake team in 05. He was 9-15 from the field with 6 threes and 14-15 from the line, and we were underdogs vs a Wake team that was looking unbeatable. People remember that game bc Coach K started a bunch of bench players as a motivator, but Redick played all 40 minutes and just dominated.

Kelly's game last night given opponent and circumstances was better though.

[devildeac]

Something's wrong with your link.

Dang. Swore I just copied and pasted. Maybe wralsportsfan blog just doesn't want to be read/linked:

Try again:

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/kelly-s...ages/12175963/

Wonder if it expires after a certain time 'cuz I'm certain I verified it when I previewed it before actually submitting it. Did the same now-verified/previewed before submitting.

Crazy.

Edit: clicked on link myself and it went right to wralsportsfan/Adam Gold's blog.

[roywhite]

Another very fine performance by a Duke player at Cameron was Kyrie's 31 point performance vs 6th ranked Michigan State. It was part of his introduction to the basketball world and certainly one of the best performances ever by a Duke freshman.

Duke 84 -- Michigan State 79

An interesting note in the boxscore -- sophomore Ryan Kelly played 17 minutes and scored 2 points. It's a tribute to Ryan that he's worked so hard to turn himself into an excellent player, and a reminder to us that young players often take a while to develop.

[captmojo]

I got thru to it.
You're straight...they're crooked.

[NovaScotian]

i think a few people have mentioned it, but JJ's game at CIS against UVA his senior year was quite something, and maybe his best single game performance. He scored 40 pts on just 13 field goals, and was 11-13 from the field (8-10 from 3). this was in the midst of his wooden award year where every team in the country was trying everything they could to stop him (and only lsu really succeeded).

http://goduke.statsgeek.com/basketba...ameid=20060128

i am editing this to include the fact that jj was so hot from three that he even got shelden williams to hit one too.

[Billy Dat]

Last night reminded me of the 1998 ACC finale when freshman Elton Brand, recently returned from 2 months off for his broken foot, lead an improbable comeback, after being down 17 in the second half, against a stacked UNC squad (Cota, Jameson, Carter et al) on Wojo's Senior Day. Kelly's performance was more epic, but that win over the Heels kind of closed the door on the 1995 - 1997 rebuilding era. Plus, Haywood choked free throws to help us win.

[Jim3k]

And the game that might have been the best individual performance in Duke history, Laettner included. 1964 East Regionals. Third-ranked Duke against seventh-ranked Villanova. Duke won with unexpected ease, 87-73 behind a 43-point performance by Jeff Mullins. 28 of those came in the first half, including a mid-court buzzer-beater. Mullins also shut down Villanova's leading scorer, Richie Moore, holding him to eight points. Mullins shot 19-28, 5-6 and pulled down 12 rebounds.

Admitting my bias as a Mullins classmate, that game has always been a gobsmacker. For the long term it punctuated that Bubas-coached Duke teams were Final Four quality and deserved to be in all future conversations about college basketball excellence. Among other things, Jeff had 12 rebounds (along with 12 more by Jay Buckley) and controlled the boards against a fine Villanova team (Bill Melchionni and Wally (later Wali) Jones, dispatching them with relative ease. Jeff's terrific defense of Moore was kind of ignored, though Bubas' overall defense became recognized as a standard for others to meet.

Principal point: Landmark game for Duke basketball.

The subsequent wins over Connecticut and Michigan were consistent with that. Even the UCLA loss in the championship game didn't override Duke's arrival on the national scene. (Yes, I know the previous year was excellent--a Final Four year--(losing in the semis to Chicago Loyola), but actually getting to the Final game was a clear step beyond. And the 1964 performance against Villanova was a breakthrough.

[Ian]

I know it's not often mentioned because we lost that game, but I actually think the 41 pt game JJ had against Georgetown to be his most impressive game. Because he had very little help in that game and singled handedly kept us in the game. Every point he scored in that game was needed, unlike blowouts where a lot of points were in garbage time any way.

That's also why Kelly performance stands out. It was against a top opponent who had beaten us earlier and we needed all of his points. There was no stat padding in this one.

[sagegrouse]

I know it's not often mentioned because we lost that game, but I actually think the 41 pt game JJ had against Georgetown to be his most impressive game. Because he had very little help in that game and singled handedly kept us in the game. Every point he scored in that game was needed, unlike blowouts where a lot of points were in garbage time any way.

That's also why Kelly performance stands out. It was against a top opponent who had beaten us earlier and we needed all of his points. There was no stat padding in this one.

JJ also scored 40 points against Virginia with only 13 shots. It is hard to see how anyone realistically could score 40 points with fewer shots. -- sage

[OldSchool]

Because of the long injury, I don’t think we can really compare it to other real-life performances whether at Duke or elsewhere. Heck, even Willis Reed only scored 4 points in his famous game coming back from injury. Really, the only proper comparisons are to Hollywood movies.

Hoosiers (1986) is a fictionalized account of the true story of a rural Indiana high school basketball team in the 1950s that makes it way to the state championship where it beats a more heralded team from a metropolitan area. According to a box score projected by Bill Simmons, Jimmy Chitwood played 32 minutes and had 30 points, going 14-18 from the field. As we know, Ryan played 32 minutes and had 36 points, going 10-14 from the field. While Jimmy had a higher percentage of his team’s total points and he did score the game-winning bucket, I’m giving the edge to Ryan because he scored his 36 against a very athletic top-5 D1 team rather than a team of high school players. I mean, how many would Jimmy have scored with 25-year old 6’11” Kenny Kadji in his face?

In Space Jam (1996), Michael Jordan leads a team of Looney Tunes cartoon characters against a team of NBA stars. Jordan scores 44 out of the 78 points scored by the Tunes team, according to an online box score. While Jordan had more points than Ryan, nevertheless I give the edge to Ryan for the following reason: If Ryan’s teammates were a bunch of cartoon characters, obviously Ryan would have had to score more to pick up the slack. He might well have had more than 36. Also, we know what a ball hog MJ was. All of Ryan’s points came completely within the flow of the offense.

In Air Bud (1997), Buddy the golden retriever, with the help of his friend Josh, escapes from the mean Mr. Snively in time to join his team in the state finals basketball game. As to who had the better game, I note the following: Buddy only played the last few minutes of the game, whereas Ryan played 32 minutes. Buddy only had a few field goals (although he did hit key foul shots down the stretch), whereas Ryan went for 36. Buddy was not coming off injury, unlike Ryan; however Buddy had been chained up for a while by Mr. Snively. Having said that, we must take into account the fact that Ryan has opposable thumbs and Buddy does not, making it difficult for Buddy to hold the ball with his paws. So unlike Buddy, Ryan is not forced to shoot the ball with his nose. Because of this last point I would have to give the edge to the performance by Buddy the golden retriever.

In summary, I would put Ryan’s individual performance above that of Jimmy in Hoosiers and that of Jordan in Space Jam, but below that of Buddy the golden retriever in Air Bud.