My Top 10* March Madness Players Who Never Made the Final Four
A Big Dog, a memorable Lion, and a Chef are among March's best but never made the Promised Land.
Lists make for easy, if not lazy content — and yet, at the same time, I’m an absolute mark for the format. They can be fun, and when done right, pack considerable information into limited space.
It’s in this spirit that I declare Fridays List Day on The Press Break. Brace yourself for a list-based column of some kind to prep you for the weekend. And the first is a topic of particular relevance with the Sweet 16 ahead of us.
First thing’s first: Take note that the title begins with the word “My,” as opposed to “The.” In no way is the following the definitive list of such players — though I personally believe it’s pretty damn close.
Nevertheless, these type of exercises are subjective. So, if you take umbrage with placement or omissions, please let me know in the comments. Your boy loves banter!
Now, criteria.
Because the NCAA Tournament dates back to 1939, and despite my fascination with the history of March Madness, I admit to limited knowledge of tournament history to a certain point. For the sake of uniformity, I am limiting the field to tournaments since its expansion to 64 entrants.
Taking it a step further, let’s expand the date range to include only those tournaments played since the institution of the 3-point line. The timelines more or less line up equally, with only two played after the expansion to 64, but prior to the use of the 3-pointer (‘85 and ‘86).
Those included have to have made the Sweet 16 or Elite 8, otherwise this will become a borderline of David Roth’s “Remember Some Guys” series about mid-major single-game stars like Harold “The Show” Arceneaux.
10t. DAVID ROBINSON, NAVY
Right from jump street I’m fudging somewhat on my own criteria, as The Admiral’s run to the Elite 8 occurred in 1986. However, David Robinson gets grandfathered by my parameters — and I think you can appreciate why.
In 1985, Robinson led the Naval Academy to a 1st Round upset of LSU with 18 points and 18 rebounds, followed by a 22-point losing effort to a Len Bias-led Maryland team in the 2nd Round.
His 1986 is the stuff of March legend. He dumped 30 on Tulsa on 11-of-16 shooting, grabbed 12 boards and blocked five shots — the second-fewest blocks Robinson accrued in any of the Mids’ four Tournament games.
He went off for 35/11/7 against Syracuse to reach the Sweet 16, then flirted with a triple-double at 22/14/9 vs. the Mouse McFadden Cinderella Cleveland State bunch.
Navy fell short of the Final Four, but not for lack of effort on Robinson’s part: He went for 23/10/2 against Duke, which made the Final Four for the first of five appearances in six years.
That’s all well and good, except it occurred before the 1987 cutoff. So why his inclusion?
Well, David Robinson scored 50 FREAKIN’ POINTS in his final college game, a loss to Michigan in the 1987 NCAA Tournament. The Admiral’s swan song also included 13 rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
Robinson’s arguably one of the greatest March Madness players ever, and is only relegated to 10 here due to my bending of the criteria to include him.
10t. Wally Szczerbiak, Miami (OH)
Wally Szczerbiak’s first NCAA Tournament appearance was unremarkable: seven points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal in a Miami U. loss to Clemson.
Two years later, however, Szczerbiak delivered one of the most individually impressive runs from any player of the ‘90s. Szczerbiak scored 43 of his team’s 59 points — yes, all but 16 — in a 1st Round win over Washington.
He also grabbed 12 rebounds, and if scoring 73 percent of his team’s total points wasn’t sufficient, he dished two assists. Szczerbiak powered the RedHawks to the Sweet 16 with 24 points, eight boards, five assists, two steals and two blocks in a Round of 32 defeat of a Utah team that had designs on the national championship after falling just short the season prior.
Miami’s 1999 run ended in the Sweet 16 against defending national champs Kentucky, but not without Szczerbiak capping his March again scoring more than half of his team’s points in a 23-point effort (the RedHawks posted 43 in total).
It’s the closest I’ve seen a single player come to willing his team to the Final Four…for a few years, anyway. But we’ll get into that later.
9. Ray Allen, UConn
Ray Allen is one of those players who I feel doesn’t get his due. In the NBA, his use of the 3-pointer was revolutionary and functioned as a prototype for the style of play prevalent now. His 2004-05 season with the Seattle SuperSonics was MVP-caliber, and it’s not out-of-bounds to suggest LeBron James’ legacy would be much less illustrious without Allen on the Miami Heat teams of last decade.
Likewise, Ray Allen isn’t often of the names I hear mentioned among all-time college stars. Being Big East contemporaries with Allen Iverson, whose time at Georgetown, might be to blame. Marcus Camby and Tim Duncan were dominating the paint in a much more center-oriented game back then. And then Rip Hamilton came along after Allen and led UConn to its first national championship.
I feel almost obligated to include Allen here to spotlight how unfairly forgotten his March performances are. In 1995, he averaged 24 points per game in a UConn run to the Elite Eight. His 36 points in the regional final against UCLA nearly powered the Huskies to their first Final Four, and highlighted an all-time great Tournament shootout (the eventual champion Bruins won, 102-96).
The next year, Allen scored 71 points in three games, including a five 3-point effort en route to 25 points in the 2nd Round defeat of the Earl Boykin-led Eastern Michigan team that bounced Duke from the 1st Round.
8. Keith Van Horn, Utah
Two oft-repeated mistakes that are like nails on a chalkboard for me as a lifelong follower of Western basketball are when people spell Lute Olson’s last name with an ‘e,’ and when Keith Van Horn is mentioned on being on the 1998 Utah team that had Kentucky on the ropes in the National Championship Game.
Van Horn’s Tournament ended against Kentucky — on more than one occasion, in fact — but never in the title game. He never played in the Final Four, but carried the Utes right to the doorstep in 1997.
Van Horn averaged 20.8 and 10.3 rebounds per game in the Utes’ Elite Eight run, including a 25-point, 14-rebound effort against Stanford in the Sweet 16.
Utah bowed out against Kentucky the year prior when the 1996 Wildcats — one of college basketball’s all-time great teams — marched to the championship. The Utes weren’t able to put up much of a fight, but Van Horn went out with a hard-earned 23 points and eight rebounds.
In his first NCAA Tournament in 1995, Van Horn scored 21 points in both of the Utes’ games against Long Beach State and Mississippi State.
7. Mitch Richmond, Kansas State
One of the first-ever NCAA Tournament games played with a 3-point line demonstrated the rule’s transformative potential, thanks to Mitch Richmond. Richmond went 5-of-5 beyond the arc en route to 34 points in K-State’s 1st Round defeat of Georgia in 1987. Richmond grabbed 11 rebounds and dished five assists for good measure.
Richmond really blew up the following year, however, carrying the Lon Kruger-coached Wildcats to the Elite Eight. He almost posted a triple-double in the opening-round win over La Salle with 30 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. In the Sweet 16 against Purdue, Richmond went off for 27 and 11.
K-State ran into a familiar foe in the Elite Eight, losing to the Danny and The Miracles Kansas Jayhawks. Had that regional gone differently, Mitch Richmond might be remembered with the same March Madness reverence as Danny Manning is.
6. Carsen Edwards, Purdue
One could make a compelling argument that Carsen Edwards’ 2019 NCAA Tournament ranks among the very best of all-time, regardless the round in which it ended.
He dropped 139 points in Purdue’s four games, including two of 42 points in the 2nd Round against Villanova in which he bombed nine 3-pointers; and again in an instant-classic Elite Eight matchup with Virginia.
Edwards’ 2019 on its own warrants inclusion on this list, but it’s also worth noting he scored 30 points in the Boilermakers’ 2018 Sweet 16 loss to Texas Tech.
5. Jameer Nelson, St. Joseph’s
Marvin O’Connor’s high-scoring exploits in the 2001 NCAA Tournament earned the St. Joe’s wingman a place in my heart among my all-time favorites in March history. Little did I know watching the Hawks play in San Diego during that opening weekend that the point guard feeding O’Connor was destined for greatness.
Jameer Nelson damn near put up triple-doubles in both of St. Joseph’s 2001 Tournament games, finishing with 13 points, eight assists and seven rebounds against Georgia Tech; then followed up with 14 points, nine rebounds and nine assists against Stanford.
St. Joe’s stay in the Big Dance lasted only a single game in 2003, but Nelson made quite an impression with 32 points and nine rebounds against Auburn. That March showing set the stage for the Hawks’ 2003-04 to remember, a campaign in which St. Joseph’s reached the Elite Eight with a championship-quality roster.
Nelson and Emeka Okafor were at the forefront of a heated race for National Player of the Year that season, and Nelson’s farewell in the Tournament offered a strong closing case. He opened the postseason with 33 points, outplayed Chris Paul in the Sweet 16 with a 24-point, seven-assist effort, then in his last Tournament game, much like his first, almost produced a triple-double: 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
4. Tim Duncan, Wake Forest
Those as old as your humble author remember when the basketball magazines of the mid-1990s presented Camby vs. Duncan like a heavyweight main event. The two centers dominated the college hoops landscape with skill sets that reflected the post-focused style of the time, but mixed in a level of athleticism rare for the 7-foot-and-over crowd at the time.
While Marcus Camby and UMass reached a Final Four, Tim Duncan’s Wake Forest teams never broke through. A 1996 Final Four matchup between the two was close; Duncan led the Demon Deacons to the Elite Eight on a run in which he posted 64 points, 52 rebounds and blocked 14 shots.
The next year, Wake Forest was derailed when Mike Montgomery employed a hack-a-Shaq style strategy on Duncan in Stanford’s 2nd Round upset of the Demon Deacons. The game itself was a miserable slog, so bad that it’s burned into my memory forever.
However, it was Duncan’s second 20-plus rebound game of the 1997 Tournament and third in March Madness during his career. Duncan also snared 22 rebounds in the Sweet 16 against Bryant Reeves and Oklahoma State in 1995.
3. Bo Kimble, Loyola Marymount
One of the most iconic moments in NCAA Tournament history, enduring 30 years later, is Bo Kimble’s left-handed free throw to honor late teammate Hank Gathers.
That the foul shot remains in March Madness lore helps keep the memory of Loyola Marymount relevant, which is a blessing. Paul Westhead’s wide-open offensive approach and constant, full-court pressure defense that established the template for the Showtime Lakers also made the Jesuit school in L.A.’s El Segundo neighborhood must-watch basketball in the late ‘80s.
Kimble’s ‘90 Tournament is indescribable. He opened with 45 points and 18 rebounds against New Mexico State, scored 37 points in a drubbing of Michigan, and closed out with 42/11 and eight 3-pointers in the classic Elite Eight showdown with UNLV.
While the 1990 Tournament is for what LMU is best known, the Lions made a run of three straight. Kimble had 24 points and 10 rebounds in a 1st Round loss to Arkansas in ‘89, and in ‘88, posted 29 points to knock off the Fennis Dembo-led Wyoming team that had been a primary Cinderella of the previous Tournament (Dembo is an honorable mention omission from this list in his own right).
An aside about Kimble and LMU: I pitched an enterprise article to The Ringer in February 2020 that was initially accepted, exploring both the legacy of the ‘90 Lions on their 30th anniversary, and a contextual examination of how college basketball has deviated from that style of high-scoring offenses and pressing defenses. An editor further down the line spiked the piece — just about a week before COVID-19 hit and shut the world, so the article would never have ran anyway — but it remains a story I hope to tell some day soon.
Maybe in this newsletter?
2. Glenn Robinson, Purdue
There have been a number of truly dominant individual seasons since Glenn Robinson’s 1993-94. None have lived up to the sheer destruction Robinson inflicted on the rest of college basketball that year, though.
He was an absolute force of nature, averaging north of 30 points per game — a feat not replicated until Marcus Keane more than two decades later — and Robinson did it while averaging a double-double at 10.1 rebounds per game.
That Robinson near played on the game’s grandest stage is a shame, but not for lacking of his own effort. In the 1994 NCAA Tournament, Robinson had games of 33 and 11; 34 and 11; and 44, seven and three steals in a Sweet 16 defeat of Kansas.
In one of his best coaching jobs in his entire career, Mike Krzyzewski put Tony Lang on Robinson and used an aggressive ball-denial strategy that limited Big Dog’s touches. The 13 points were the fewest he scored in a Tournament game, but his 13 rebounds and mere presence freeing up teammates forced Duke to win a nail-biter in the final seconds.
Robinson’s bow-out game the previous season is more statistically noteworthy. He scored 36 points and grabbed seven rebounds, giving him 33 points or more in 80 percent of the Tournament games he played all-time.
1. Steph Curry, Davidson
Referring back to Wally Szczerbiak, I noted that he singlehandedly took over and willed his team through the Tournament in a way I hadn’t seen before or since, until some time later.
That time was 2008, and that player was Steph Curry.
Before diving into Curry’s historic 2008 March Madness, it’s confession time: When I watched Davidson fall to Maryland in the 1st Round of the 2007 Tournament, I thought Steph Curry was awful.
He hit the Terps for 30 points that afternoon, but did so on 9-of-21 shooting with four turnovers. Some of the misses were so ill-advised and looked like nothing I’d ever seen any player, let alone a point guard, hoist up. Little did I know, he was prepping for the revolutionary style he’d employ a few years later with the Golden State Warriors.
Despite dismissing Curry after his freshman Tournament debut as a prototypical rich-kid style player — if you know the type, an image has no doubt popped into your mind — the following year, I got sucked in.
And why wouldn’t I? The only individual March I would say surpasses Curry’s 2008 is Kemba Walker’s 2011, and Kemba only gets the edge by virtue of winning a national championship.
The 2008 Davidson team wasn’t as much a one-man band as Szczerbiak’s ‘99 Miami U. To suggest so is a discredit to Bob McKillop’s coaching, and the supporting cast of solid mid-major upperclassmen like Thomas Sander and Jason Richards.
Still, Curry’s performance for those four games is the closest thing I’ve witnessed to one play just forcing his team way to the Final Four. While Curry went off for 40, 30, 33 and 25 in Davidson’s four contest — an average of 32 points per game — his team play improved dramatically from the year prior.
He knew when to take the shot, and he averaged close to four assists per game to show for it. Curry’s defense remains an underrated facet of that Tournament run, too. He made timely plays on the defensive end to set up the dramatics he produced on offense.
His 2nd Round game against Georgetown is up in its entirety on YouTube, but it’s honestly the least spectacular of the four. His 1st Round performance against Gonzaga is worth searching for if you’ve never seen the full game, or just want to revisit for nostalgia.