Top 10 tournament performances by local players

Ainge at #2 is a joke. It is the top ten best games, not shots. Ainge's final shot was truly exceptional, for the game he was mediocre.

Miller was sensational the whole tournament, but ran out of gas in the final. I've always thought if Majereus had given him two minutes rest in the first 12 minutes of the second half he'd have led the Utes to the title.

Andre Miller's run in the 1998 tournament was inspiring. The other performances listed here (I can remember back to Ainge's heroics) were great, but they don't even come close to what Miller did.

18 points, 14 boards and 13 assists - are you kidding me?! Talk about playing big when it counts!

Tony Brown's performance in 2000 in USU's win over Ohio State certainly deserves a spot in the top 10.

Where's Andrew Bogut? Are you kidding me? He took Utah to the sweet 16 beating UTEP and Oklahoma along the way before losing to Kentucky and you put Shawn Bradley in because he was so tall he could swat away shots? Jerry Chambers is way too low on the list. He was named the MVP of the tournament which today would be national player of the year. He should have been your number 2.

Sorenson is the voice for Utah sports in the Des News so there is little wonder that he would pick an entry worthy of the #5 spot as his number one performance. Considering that Ainge's shot is shown multiple times every year by CBS and ESPN during the tourney as one of the greatest moments ever in the NCAAs kind of discredits Sorenson.

Actually gonefishin it is the "Top 10 Performances" not "games". CBS seems to think that Ainge is one of the top 5 ever. Strange that none of the others on this list are even mentioned during the tourney.

gonefishn | 12:59 p.m.

If the criteria for being top-10 was being most memorable... Ainge's final play to snatch the unlikely win was VERY memorable.

Sometimes it's not the whole game that makes it memorable, it's also all the hype leading up to the moment... the angst of almost certain defeat... and the excitement of the unlikely moment.

There was a lot of hype for a BYU-vs-NOTRE DAME March Madness Matchup, and I think the winner advanced to the sweet-16 (which is a big deal), and then the shear drama of the ending... it had all the ingredients of a great and historical moment for Utah sports.

Utah has 6 out of the 10, and I think an argument could be made that they should have 7 out of 10... Shawn Bradley? Are you serious? I'm sure that is just pandering to the BYU fans out there looking for any kind of tourney success.

I'm actually fine with Ainge at #2 (although I'd put Chambers and Ferrin above him, but it's arguable).

Andre Miller's performance against Arizona is one of the few triple doubles ever in tournament history. As I was watching the game, I was amazed at how he dominated the defending champs. It would be very difficult for a Utah b-ball player to ever outperform him in a tournament game situation. Andre was simply the best.

@PP

Performances in this sense refers to the overall performance of the individual's game. I think you are getting "performances" mixed up with "moments." If it was a list for top moments than Ainge's layup could arguably be first, but the list is not "moments" it's "performances." Additionally, as the list states Ainge only had 12 points that game (not a great overall performance just a great moment that won the game).

By far Andre Miller had the best performance: 18 points 14 rebounds and 13 assists is incredible to see in any basketball game on any level. Miller's #1 spot is well-deserved.

Nice feature. Great to remember some of these players.

SMS - you are indulging in what is known as spin. You are implying what "performance" means when the writer indicated no such thing.

Again - Ainge's dash is considered one of the great moments in the history of the NCAA tournament. Miller's was a fantastic performance as well and I loved every minute of it. But who remembers it outside of Utah?

Re PP: considering all the other top ten performances were achieved throughout a game, I think SMS makes a good point.

I'm also fine with Ainge's big shot (and what a game) being #2--but the game Josh Grant played against Michigan State in Tucson---the battle against Steve Smith--may have been the best college basketball game I've ever seen. It was followed by UNLV (Stacy Augman, Larry Johnson, Anderson Hunt and Greg Anthony taking on a great, young Georgetown team led by Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutumbo. This was also a classic, but even the UNLV fans I was sitting close to were still shaking their heads by what they had seen earlier.

If Jimmer scores 40 in a first round lose will that be top 10!!!

I remember the national announcers going crazy for Harold the Show!!!

Shawn Bradley? Where is Alex Jensen shutting down 5 future pro players? Tom Chambers? Bogut? Bradley not deserving of top 10 performances.