BTI’s Rants and Ramblings: The Oddest Individual Performance in UK History?
Sometimes a guy does something in a game that is so unexpected. I remember Bobby Perry playing amazing in the NCAA Tournament after a struggle of a season. Marcus Lee last year against Michigan is another example of this. But I think I found maybe the oddest individual performance in UK history….or at least the most unexpected.
Bob Burrow, 50 points, 1956 (LSU)
In UK history, there have been 8 games of 45 points or more by a UK player. Three of them are by Jodie Meeks, three of them are by Dan Issel, and Cliff Hagen also has one. The 8th? It would be Bob Burrow. Now to be fair, Burrow was no slouch. He has his number retired in Rupp Arena and was a 2nd-team All-American in his senior year. He averaged over 20 points per game that season. But he was more in the realm of a consistent scorer than a high volume scorer like Meeks. Burrow only scored 40 points or more once in his career besides this 50 point game. But on one glorious night in Memorial Colesium, Burrow shot 19-26 from the field and 12-15 from the foul line to pour in 50. Consider this: in his next 2 games, Burrow scored 12 and 10 points respectively. In Jodie Meek’s 2 games following his 54-point game he scored 22 and 31 points. In fact, Meeks didn’t score under 20 for 5 straight games after his top game.
I think Burrow’s game might be the most unexpected huge game in UK history. But what do you think? Do you remember a time you were shocked how a guy played?
10 Comments for BTI’s Rants and Ramblings: The Oddest Individual Performance in UK History?
BTI – look at the pic you posted. It’s Cotton Nash not Bob Burrow.
I agree. Instead of reading the post for content, I was distracted by the wrong picture. It takes away from what could have been a good post.
Don’t worry, it also wasn’t a good post.
Shagari Alleyne against Georgia State, 2005. Leading scorer with 16, which represented 37 percent of his scoring for the season.
He had a fantastic drop step going toward the basket that night that they could not stop. And he never showed anything close to that ability before or after that night.
Don’t remember who we were playing, just that it was a big game for us. The player was Jeff Brassow. I don’t remember how many points he scored – probably not that many – but he had been beat to death by injuries and rough treatment by the opposition. I think he was sick, too.
It was so obvious that this kid was hurting physically and completely out of gas emotionally, that I hurt right along with him!
But something else pushed him to continue. Pride, love for the game, love for his team…I’ll never know what motivated him that day. But on that day, he dug way down and came up with a way to give it his very best on every possession.
Did we win? Don’t recall. But Jeff Brassow did. And I’ll not forget that.
Did you actually think that was a picture of Bob Burrow ? He also has a rebound record that still stands and he was sopposed to be recognized as Kentucky’s “Legend” at this past SEC Tourney but I don’t remember hearing if it happened. Did he make it ?
Thanks for remembering the rebound record! He is very proud of that.
Bob was introduced as Kentucky’s “Legend” at the SEC tourney this year. Looking forward to this honor helped him make a fast recovery (less than 3 months) from a very serious, and complicated, heart surgery. It was a wonderful experience for him, and our family, I’m just a bit sad that that the presentation didn’t make TV; I had my recorder set! Lee Ann Burrow
I have not the slightest idea what the most unusual performance by a UK player has been but this post about Bob Burrow with Cotton Nash’s picture as a lead in is in the top ten of all time weird posts on KSR…….. and that is saying a lot……….bti does suck
Poor BTI. I was going to point out that the picture is of my first favorite player from my early childhood, Cotton Nash, but I can see that’s been covered.
As far as the biggest surprise game, I would have to go with Bo Lanter against Notre Dame in Freedom Hall. What year was that… ’77 or ’79? Not sure.
Since you included Nash’ picture, how about his game at UT as a senior when he scored something like 4 points but had 10-15 assists because of a freak Ray Mears zone defense that smothered him. His senior year he scored about 23 a game and was a first All American, but that game he did what the team needed and UK came away with a tough win in Knoxville.