Dick Harmon: BYU basketball: Jimmer had a once-in-a-lifetime performance

"Not ever. I've never seen anybody score like that," said Remington. "What can you do?" Fredette missed his first four shots of the second half, then started up again, rattling in shots at a less torrid but equally impressive pace. The total slowly climbed to the stunning 52.

After coaches and players made it to the podium for interviews, to dissect the game and what everyone witnessed, I approached former Albuquerque Journal sports editor Dennis Latta, whom I first met on a WAC skywriter's tour for football in 1977.

Latta covered the 1983 Final Four in Albuquerque and witnessed the 1971 Final Four in Houston, 15 Final Fours in all. He goes back to when David Thompson played for North Carolina State and won the NCAA and saw Ed Pinkey and Villinova shot about 70 percent to beat Georgetown.

"I have never seen a performance like what Fredette did tonight," said Latta.

"New Mexico really was not playing bad defense. They tried strength, speed and length and nothing worked. He could have shot 50 percent from the third row of the stands and had popcorn between shots without spilling any," said Latta.

To chants from the BYU fans in the crowd, "You got Jimmered, You got Jimmered," Fredette certainly lived up to his name, a verb, a noun, a label, a buzzword that means something like "You got killed."

Never seen anything like it.

Probably never will again.

e-mail: dharmon@desnews.com