A Brief, Incomplete History of NCAA Tournament Triple-Doubles

Welcome Illinois wing Marcus Domask to the exclusive club of players to record triple-doubles in the NCAA Tournament. Star of Thursday’s 1st Round early window, Domask went for 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists as the Illini surged from a near-stalemate at halftime to rout Morehead State.

His triple-double is officially the 10th in March Madness history, and Domask is the ninth player to record such a stat line. Again, that’s officially.

However, in 1956, Bill Russell posted a superhuman 20/20/20 triple-double in the National Championship Game, going for 26 points, 27 rebounds and 20 blocked shots.

The Gazette in Iowa captures Russell’s defensive dominance in a snapshot. The caption “That Guy Russell” is great; like a ‘50s version of saying “He is HIM.”

But that performance predated the NCAA officially tracking the blocked shot as a statistic for 30 years.

As a result, Shaquille O’Neal in 1992 and Cole Aldrich in 2009 are the only credited points/rebounds/blocks triple-doubles in NCAA Tournament history.

Statistical database Sports-Reference.com, however, gives Artis Gilmore a 12-point, 22-rebound, 11-block triple-double in a loss to Western Kentucky, the season after he led Jacksonville University to an improbable Final Four.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar posted at least a double-double in every Tournament game he played with UCLA. Given how dominant the greatest college player of all-time was for the Bruins, it stands to reason he would have had at least one 10-block game.

Similar to blocked shots, although the NCAA record book declares that assists were first tracked beginning in 1950, the stat wasn’t permanently added and tracked universally until 1983.

As a result, there may be plenty of other triple-doubles like Russell’s lost to the ether.

Sports-Reference credits Oscar Robertson with four NCAA Tournament triple-doubles, for example, including an absolutely absurd 39 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists against Louisville in the 1959 third-place game.

As it stands, the official NCAA Tournament triple-double count:

Gary Grant, Michigan

24 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists - 1987 2nd Round vs. North Carolina

Columnist Adrian O’Connor of The Register (Danville, Va.) used the adjective “Homeric” to describe Grant’s performance in his round-up from Charlotte.

Sportswriting needs to bring back this kind of word choice; invoking The Iliad is both richly hyperbolic, but not ham-fisted when done in one word.

Despite Grant’s efforts, Michigan lost in a 109-97 shootout after giving up 60 points in the first half. Grant earning a place in history overshadows a 27-point, 10-rebound from Caroilna’s J.R. Reid.

Shaquille O’Neal, LSU

26 points, 13 rebounds, 11 blocks - 1992 1st Round vs. BYU

The above-referenced installment of Madness Moments goes in-depth on Shaq’s points/rebounds/blocks triple-double in a 1992 win over BYU. I’ll spare you a rehash, but I’m more than happy to link to his performance.

David Cain, St. John’s

12 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists - 1993 1st Round vs. Texas Tech

David Cain told reporters following St. John’s 85-67 rout of Texas Tech in the 1st Round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament that “with about three minutes to go, the bench was telling me I needed one more rebound.”

Cain grabbed two more at that point and finished with his 12/11/11 line. Of note, the 6-foot Cain is the shortest player with an official NCAA Tournament triple-double.

Andre Miller, Utah

18 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists - 1998 Elite Eight vs. Arizona

Utah stunned reigning and defending national champion Arizona in the 1998 Elite Eight, blitzing the Wildcats behind Andre Miller’s sensational performance.

Interestingly enough, Miller’s is one of only two March Madness triple-doubles recorded in the second weekend. The second was the next Big Dance triple-double of any kind, five years later.

Dwyane Wade, Marquette

29 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists - 2003 Elite Eight vs. Kentucky

“When I saw DWade go off against Tayshaun Prince and Kentucky and send Marquette to the Final Four, I said to my friends, ‘I guarantee that guy will be a Hall of Famer and we’ll win two NBA Finals together in the next decade.’”

OK, so I had to preface the following with the above. I feel guilty of going Lying LeBron mode writing this after the fact, but watching Dwyane Wade put on a one-man show in the 2003 Elite Eight was the moment I thought Wade could be one for the ages.

And his performance that day is easily among the best NCAA Tournament performances I’ve ever watched live.

Cole Aldrich, Kansas

13 points, 20 rebounds, 10 blocks - 2009 2nd Round vs. Dayton

Just the second-ever and last official points/rebounds/blocks triple-double in NCAA Tournament came courtesy of Cole Aldrich.

Surprisingly, his is the only 20-plus rebound triple-double ever formally tracked in March Madness, and came on the heels of 23-point, 13-rebound double-double in a competitive, 1st Round win over North Dakota State.

Draymond Green, Michigan State

23 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists - 2011 1st Round vs. UCLA

24 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists - 2012 1st Round vs. Long Island

Michigan State has a well-documented and celebrated history of making the Final Four under Tom Izzo.

Ironically, none of Sparty’s runs to the national semifinals came in the years Draymond Green went for triple-doubles in the opening-round.

Green’s NBA career has more than made up for it, however, as he showed off the same versatility as a pillar for Golden State’s four Larry O’Brien Trophies won from 2015 through 2022.

Ja Morant, Murray State

17 points, 11 rebounds, 16 assists - 2019 1st Round vs. Marquette

“Ja Morant makes a lot of plans look bad,” former Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski said after Morant’s triple-double bounced the Golden Eagles for the 2019 NCAA Tournament. “I've been in this for a while. He's as good as any guard that I've coached against, or played against, and I've coached against and played against some outstanding ones.”

Wojo played for Duke teams in the mid-to-late 1990s that faced plenty of all-time college greats. His assessment of Morant has been validated pretty consistently in the five years since.