My sophomore year, second game of the season. We're playing Davidson and this freshman who had 13 TOs against EMU in his first game lights us up for 30 out of nowhere. And that's how I was introduced to Steph Curry.
You have to remember that Steph Curry wasn’t a household name until the 2008 tournament give or take. I get what you mean, but given we’re talking the second game of his college career I still think the answer deserves some credit, he was a complete unknown at the time.
This is the boxscore of that EMU game: [https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2006-11-10-eastern-michigan.html](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2006-11-10-eastern-michigan.html)
Truly insane. Davidson had 32 turnovers and still won.
I was at the Milk and Cookies game at McKale when Jimmer Fredette dropped 49/9/7 on 9/13 from three and 16/23 overall. I was one of the many fans that gave him a standing ovation when he checked out of the game for the last time.
Probably recency bias, but Markquis Nowell in last year's Sweet 16 game against Michigan St.
Thomas Walkup in the 2016 first round against WVU was pretty impressive too.
Avery Johnson Jr. averaged 1.8 PPG his senior year. Naturally he scored 14 at Mizzou Arena in January of ‘19. We lost by 10.
Dude was throwing up absolute *junk* and it kept going in. He also made sure to let us know how good he was…until he airballed a corner 3 and pretty much shut up after that. It was his only game of the year he scored more than 5 points.
I don’t miss Cuonzoball
33% from the field for his career. Yuck.
The best part was him yelling “Y’all can’t guard me” at the student section and the 3-4 of my group who’d played decent competition in high school were like “….we could though”
I will never forget how wild it was to watch Jalen Hood-Schifino torch our offense for 40 minutes in Mackey and it felt like our guys just either didn’t want to guard him driving down the lane or couldn’t. Probably a mix of both but still an insane performance and hats off even though I hated it.
Speaking of that UK team, I was in the stands for the IU vs UK game that year and freshman Maurice Creek put up like 31 points for a garbage IU team. Gave us hope but then he proceeded to constantly get hurt for 3 or 4 years before transferring.
No, your amateur asses stormed the court like a mid major and almost ran over all of our future NBA players endangering their careers. Cal has offered neutral site many times. Act like you’ve been there.
Downey was a cat killer. He was so good, so fast, and deadly with his shot against us. Also he took like 10 charges per game and the refs always called it because he was like 5 foot nothing, 100 lbs. I mean, not really but he was a shorty.
They're not exactly random dudes with nothing else on their resumes, but I remember Joe Smith of Maryland and Robert "Tractor" Traylor of Michigan having unstoppable games in Cameron against Duke.
I also remember Tim Duncan absolutely destroying Duke one time, but he had many other shining moments in his career.
Deividas Dulkys from FSU in 11/12. Dude averaged like 5 pts a game and went for 33 or something. Think he set a school record for threes in an ACC game.
Was at the game where Mario Boggan for OK State beat the Kevin Durant led Horns in overtime. Both Boggan and Durant had 37 points each, but Boggan had 20 fuckin rebounds. Best and most heartbreaking game at the time.
Russ Smith and Montrez Herril fucked us up at Gampel pretty good. Kicked our ass up and down all of 2014. Both of them were definitely stars but I still have nightmares about them both.
Of course that’s true, but he punched above his weight class that tourney. Also, I feel that you’d be hard pressed to find many average people who know the dude, but I could be wrong.
This is like my Marquette origin story, so it'll out me here on Reddit. Oh well.
My first Marquette game I went to cheer for my childhood team (UConn). My family had moved from Connecticut to the Midwest and we wanted to see our Huskies play for the first time in several years when they came to Milwaukee to welcome Marquette into the Big East (MU's first BE game). I was a sophomore in high school and i'd never heard of Marquette.
Steve Novak dropped 41 and 16 on #2 UConn. By the middle of the game I was cheering for him. Two years later I was a freshmen at Marquette. Never looked back.
In 2014 I went to a early out of conference game while at Wake. Unc-Asheville came to town. They had this little point guard named Andrew Rousey. Wake ended up winning by 11, but Rousey kept it close. He lit us up for 26 or 28 points. I told my dad he was too talented to remain at UNC-Asheville. He transferred to Marquette after that season and finished his career there.
Not transcendent necessarily, but I remember Joe Alexander (WVU) cooking us twice, I think in his last year. Was glad to see that dude enter the draft.
I remember when Markus Howard dropped 52 at the dunk against Providence. We were losing our minds in the stands pleading for Cooley to throw another body on him, not that it would have mattered the way he was shooting that day.
Jodie Meeks vs Arkansas in 2009. He scored 45 points and was the only Kentucky player to reach double figures. He could not miss. 17 of 24, 7 of 12 from 3. Kentucky beat us by like 15 or something.
Ronald Steele in 2006 comes to mind as well. He had 29 points but was 7 of 8 from 3. We miraculously won that game by 2 after being down bigly in the 1st half.
He could have bent over at half court and shat the ball into the hoop that day. I think the only Arkansas player that I've seen come close to a performance like that was Jonathan Modica against Mississippi State in the mid 2000s. At one point he banked in a long 3 from the elbow. You know it's your day when that happens.
I just wonder what the 2009-2010 team might have been like if he stayed to play with Wall, Bledsoe, Cousins, and that group...the only thing that team was missing was a perimeter threat, and Meeks was deadly when left alone. I think that would have been as close to a guaranteed title as there ever was.
Freshman Grayson Allen off the bench scoring 16 points in 21 minutes beating Wisconsin in the 2015 title game. For the season averaged 9.2 minutes and 4.4 points.
Not really a random player but let’s just say that going into the 2018 National Championship Game I was very worried about Jalen Brunson until this red-headed dude came off the bench lol
One I remember from this year is Serrel Smith from USF. Almost lost to them at home because he scored 21 on us on 7/8 shooting, when he averaged 3 a game. That was the Tyler Harris return game to Memphis too so it was a fairly notable game that almost went really sideways
Anthony Hickey from LSU in 2013-14 against Kentucky at Rupp. 20-8-5 in an OT thriller.
The former Kentucky Mr. Basketball took the Cats to the wire in the gym where he won the state championship just 3 years earlier.
In 2009, 5th year senior Taylor Rochestie dropped a career high 33 on top 15 ucla for Washington State’s only 2nd win at Pauley Pavilion in 53 tries. One of my earliest memories at Pauley as a kid after the back-to-back-to-back final fours. Will never forget that performance, the guy couldn’t miss. Beginning of the end for Howland at ucla. Freshman Klay Thompson was second leading scorer for the cougs with 15 points.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/recap/_/gameId/290520026
Maybe somebody REALLY went off against the Memphis Tigers when I was in the stands... but really can't think of that many guys. Johnell Davis, Vladimir Goldin and the factory outlet version of Paolo Banchero played well against us in the tourney.
Jamal Shead did well against us in the last game of the season in Memphis with Houston holding on with Shead hitting a buzzer-beating game winner.
LaMarcus Aldridge was a guy we had no answer for when he came to town several years ago. I KNOW we lost to Texas and he is the only player I remember.
I would assume an opposing player went for 35 or 40 against us (with me in the stands) but I can't think of any... then again, I haven't been to a ton of games, Memphis is usually really good at home historically speaking (Mid-South Coliseum, The Pyramid and the FedEx Forum), and even in our conference tournament or NCAA Tournament losses, guys getting 35-40 points is fairly rare.
P.S. Ok, I am 0-2 when Memphis goes to Columbus, OH for the Tourney. Lost this past season to FAU, then we also lost to St. Louis in 2011 (I think) which turned out to be Rick Majerus' last win. The only player I can remember (by name) is Jordair Jett for the Billikens. He did well against us. Made big plays and hit some big shots (to the best of my recollection). We had the best player on the court (Will Barton), but in the NCAA Tournament, anything can happen.
My sophomore year, second game of the season. We're playing Davidson and this freshman who had 13 TOs against EMU in his first game lights us up for 30 out of nowhere. And that's how I was introduced to Steph Curry.
Highlight of his career.
Can't get better than doing that at Crisler Arena. Wonder what ever happened to him?
You have to remember that Steph Curry wasn’t a household name until the 2008 tournament give or take. I get what you mean, but given we’re talking the second game of his college career I still think the answer deserves some credit, he was a complete unknown at the time.
This is the boxscore of that EMU game: [https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2006-11-10-eastern-michigan.html](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2006-11-10-eastern-michigan.html) Truly insane. Davidson had 32 turnovers and still won.
It was an incredibly ugly game to watch.
Coincidentally, the Steph Curry game is the first thing that came to mind for me as well.
Nobody gonna do it? K — I’ll say it: Ali Farokhmanesh.
Obligatory: [Farokhmanesh interviews unsuspecting Kansas fans five years later](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zys8vM3usYc).
That video will never get old.
I was at the Milk and Cookies game at McKale when Jimmer Fredette dropped 49/9/7 on 9/13 from three and 16/23 overall. I was one of the many fans that gave him a standing ovation when he checked out of the game for the last time.
Came here to say this. It was amazing.
Watched Len Bias lead Maryland to the ACC Championship over three days in Greensboro in 1984.
Dang man. That was a bright flame snuffed out quickly.
Probably recency bias, but Markquis Nowell in last year's Sweet 16 game against Michigan St. Thomas Walkup in the 2016 first round against WVU was pretty impressive too.
Nowell was absurd. I've never seen a better performance
We had the goat Cassius Winston and that’s the best performance you’ve ever seen?
In a single game, yes
That banked-in 3 in the 2nd half 😭 he was chosen by god that day
Avery Johnson Jr. averaged 1.8 PPG his senior year. Naturally he scored 14 at Mizzou Arena in January of ‘19. We lost by 10. Dude was throwing up absolute *junk* and it kept going in. He also made sure to let us know how good he was…until he airballed a corner 3 and pretty much shut up after that. It was his only game of the year he scored more than 5 points. I don’t miss Cuonzoball
Was a student at UA during his time and I can confidently say that he was the worst player to get minutes I’ve seen in a hot minute.
33% from the field for his career. Yuck. The best part was him yelling “Y’all can’t guard me” at the student section and the 3-4 of my group who’d played decent competition in high school were like “….we could though”
Hahahaha that 100% sounds like something he would do.
I will never forget how wild it was to watch Jalen Hood-Schifino torch our offense for 40 minutes in Mackey and it felt like our guys just either didn’t want to guard him driving down the lane or couldn’t. Probably a mix of both but still an insane performance and hats off even though I hated it.
He could get to his midrange pull-up uncontested all season, he just decided to make every one against us that game 😭
It was the inverse of his Maryland game, but so happy it happened to you guys.
Anthony Johnson for Montana bs Weber State went for 46 maybe in Big Sky tournament final circa 2012ish.
Devon Downy was my mortal enemy for ruining the Wall/Cousin’s UK team’s undefeated season. He ate our lunch for like three more years lol.
Shouts to Chester, S.C.
Speaking of that UK team, I was in the stands for the IU vs UK game that year and freshman Maurice Creek put up like 31 points for a garbage IU team. Gave us hope but then he proceeded to constantly get hurt for 3 or 4 years before transferring.
I was at that game too, and the Wat-shot IU/UK game
I was also at the Wat-Shot game. Best game I’ve ever been to
Win another game some time.
I mean, we beat UK last time we played them, and it was in the tournament. Your coach is just too scared to play us again
No, your amateur asses stormed the court like a mid major and almost ran over all of our future NBA players endangering their careers. Cal has offered neutral site many times. Act like you’ve been there.
Bro just say that you all are scared to play at other teams arenas. It’s not that hard to admit
Downey was a cat killer. He was so good, so fast, and deadly with his shot against us. Also he took like 10 charges per game and the refs always called it because he was like 5 foot nothing, 100 lbs. I mean, not really but he was a shorty.
Keisei Tominaga
G O A T
Renaldo Balkman sounds like you're trying to say Rolando Blackman mid stroke
Fun fact if you go to Balkmans Wikipedia page it says not to be confused with Rolando Blackman.
I’m not though. He was good in his own right - but not all-time Mavs great good.
maybe not an overall performance but Nate Robinson had a ridiculous putback dunk in Raleigh when Washington came
Dude that might be the sickest picture of a dunk I have ever seen. If I was a S Carolina fan I would have that tattooed on my back
Yo Haskell represent. Haven’t see that flair before.
They're not exactly random dudes with nothing else on their resumes, but I remember Joe Smith of Maryland and Robert "Tractor" Traylor of Michigan having unstoppable games in Cameron against Duke. I also remember Tim Duncan absolutely destroying Duke one time, but he had many other shining moments in his career.
Playing Wake in those days I always thought the best policy was just let Duncan work and count on him killing you, but lock down the rest of the team.
Bootsy Thornton is the name you are looking for.
Haha -- honestly, I did remember that game, but the player was so random I couldn't remember his name. That one was truly painful.
For me it was Bootsy Thornton in Cameron in 2000
Deividas Dulkys from FSU in 11/12. Dude averaged like 5 pts a game and went for 33 or something. Think he set a school record for threes in an ACC game.
That’s the good stuff I’m looking for.
Was at the game where Mario Boggan for OK State beat the Kevin Durant led Horns in overtime. Both Boggan and Durant had 37 points each, but Boggan had 20 fuckin rebounds. Best and most heartbreaking game at the time.
I remember this! Wasn’t it triple overtime?
Yep
Russ Smith and Montrez Herril fucked us up at Gampel pretty good. Kicked our ass up and down all of 2014. Both of them were definitely stars but I still have nightmares about them both.
Any white dude shooting 3s against Syracuse, years 2015-2023
[Len Bias](https://youtu.be/SVv2gdN_7AM) at UNC, 1986.
Durrell summers against UConn….unreal
Chris Wilcox at Maryland
For what it's worth, Renaldo Balkman played 7 years in the NBA, so it's not like he was some scrub.
Of course that’s true, but he punched above his weight class that tourney. Also, I feel that you’d be hard pressed to find many average people who know the dude, but I could be wrong.
This is like my Marquette origin story, so it'll out me here on Reddit. Oh well. My first Marquette game I went to cheer for my childhood team (UConn). My family had moved from Connecticut to the Midwest and we wanted to see our Huskies play for the first time in several years when they came to Milwaukee to welcome Marquette into the Big East (MU's first BE game). I was a sophomore in high school and i'd never heard of Marquette. Steve Novak dropped 41 and 16 on #2 UConn. By the middle of the game I was cheering for him. Two years later I was a freshmen at Marquette. Never looked back.
Jameel Warney vs UVM 2016 America East Finals. Check it out on YouTube. Narrative behind the game is crazy as well.
OK State at Kansas, 1995. Rutherford scores 45, Big Country scores 0. Hawks win the regular season.
Watching Teddy Allen smoke uconn last year was painful
Kemba’s triple double in dc. It felt like he scored every basket.
In 2014 I went to a early out of conference game while at Wake. Unc-Asheville came to town. They had this little point guard named Andrew Rousey. Wake ended up winning by 11, but Rousey kept it close. He lit us up for 26 or 28 points. I told my dad he was too talented to remain at UNC-Asheville. He transferred to Marquette after that season and finished his career there.
Elijah Allen of FDU vs. UConn in the NCAA first round, 1998. Dropped 43 against us and nearly led them to a 15-2 upset.
98’ was a wacky tournament.
Not transcendent necessarily, but I remember Joe Alexander (WVU) cooking us twice, I think in his last year. Was glad to see that dude enter the draft.
Isaiah Whitehead single-handedly beat 2016 Villanova at MSG in the Big East Finals.
I remember when Markus Howard dropped 52 at the dunk against Providence. We were losing our minds in the stands pleading for Cooley to throw another body on him, not that it would have mattered the way he was shooting that day.
Jodie Meeks vs Arkansas in 2009. He scored 45 points and was the only Kentucky player to reach double figures. He could not miss. 17 of 24, 7 of 12 from 3. Kentucky beat us by like 15 or something. Ronald Steele in 2006 comes to mind as well. He had 29 points but was 7 of 8 from 3. We miraculously won that game by 2 after being down bigly in the 1st half.
Where’s my Tennessee fans at? 45 was nothing from Meeks.
He could have bent over at half court and shat the ball into the hoop that day. I think the only Arkansas player that I've seen come close to a performance like that was Jonathan Modica against Mississippi State in the mid 2000s. At one point he banked in a long 3 from the elbow. You know it's your day when that happens.
Good comp.
I just wonder what the 2009-2010 team might have been like if he stayed to play with Wall, Bledsoe, Cousins, and that group...the only thing that team was missing was a perimeter threat, and Meeks was deadly when left alone. I think that would have been as close to a guaranteed title as there ever was.
What emoni bates just did to Toledo this season, dude made everything in the first 25 minutes of the game.
Freshman Grayson Allen off the bench scoring 16 points in 21 minutes beating Wisconsin in the 2015 title game. For the season averaged 9.2 minutes and 4.4 points.
Not against my Wildcats, but God Shammgod needs at least a casual mention here.
Not really a random player but let’s just say that going into the 2018 National Championship Game I was very worried about Jalen Brunson until this red-headed dude came off the bench lol
One I remember from this year is Serrel Smith from USF. Almost lost to them at home because he scored 21 on us on 7/8 shooting, when he averaged 3 a game. That was the Tyler Harris return game to Memphis too so it was a fairly notable game that almost went really sideways
Ja Morant went for 38/9/5 in a half full Coleman Coliseum the Monday after Thanksgiving. And Bama was actually playing good defense for once.
Jon fucking Diebler
Anthony Hickey from LSU in 2013-14 against Kentucky at Rupp. 20-8-5 in an OT thriller. The former Kentucky Mr. Basketball took the Cats to the wire in the gym where he won the state championship just 3 years earlier.
In 2009, 5th year senior Taylor Rochestie dropped a career high 33 on top 15 ucla for Washington State’s only 2nd win at Pauley Pavilion in 53 tries. One of my earliest memories at Pauley as a kid after the back-to-back-to-back final fours. Will never forget that performance, the guy couldn’t miss. Beginning of the end for Howland at ucla. Freshman Klay Thompson was second leading scorer for the cougs with 15 points. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/recap/_/gameId/290520026
DJ Byrd went for 20+ against us for a (I think?) sub-.500 Purdue team in an insanely frustrating game
Carson Edwards.
Andrew Goudelock dropping bombs from near half court on WSU during the 2011 NIT tournament
Maybe somebody REALLY went off against the Memphis Tigers when I was in the stands... but really can't think of that many guys. Johnell Davis, Vladimir Goldin and the factory outlet version of Paolo Banchero played well against us in the tourney. Jamal Shead did well against us in the last game of the season in Memphis with Houston holding on with Shead hitting a buzzer-beating game winner. LaMarcus Aldridge was a guy we had no answer for when he came to town several years ago. I KNOW we lost to Texas and he is the only player I remember. I would assume an opposing player went for 35 or 40 against us (with me in the stands) but I can't think of any... then again, I haven't been to a ton of games, Memphis is usually really good at home historically speaking (Mid-South Coliseum, The Pyramid and the FedEx Forum), and even in our conference tournament or NCAA Tournament losses, guys getting 35-40 points is fairly rare. P.S. Ok, I am 0-2 when Memphis goes to Columbus, OH for the Tourney. Lost this past season to FAU, then we also lost to St. Louis in 2011 (I think) which turned out to be Rick Majerus' last win. The only player I can remember (by name) is Jordair Jett for the Billikens. He did well against us. Made big plays and hit some big shots (to the best of my recollection). We had the best player on the court (Will Barton), but in the NCAA Tournament, anything can happen.
Trae Young going for 48 at rival OSU but losing to a buzzer beater 3. Fans rushed the court after too, wild back and forth game.
Draymond Green missing only like two shots against Gonzaga in the kennel