ESPNTheMag.Com Presents: All-World Power Rankings

What's the best individual Big East Tournament performance?

Getty Images

Best Orange ever? Probably DC, 'Melo or Sherm, right? This guy has a small case, though.

BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN A BIG EAST TOURNAMENT? ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO GO AGAINST G-MAC

[Ed's note: Not sure what All-World Power Rankings is? Please click here.]

Championship Week! Yaaaay! Fun! Wow, that was a lot of exclamation points. All the conference tournaments have value, but let's be honest: a lot of eyes will be on MSG this week. Who the heck is coming out of there? There are legitimately five teams that might be able to win the national championship headed to New York. (Disagree? Let us know.) We decided to rank the best individual performances in Big East Tournament history. By this, we don't mean single-game. We mean entire runs through "The Mecca" by a single player. When we say it that way, it should be more obvious, right?

TOP 5
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	1 (14)	GERRY MCNAMARA (2006)	What he did in the '06 Big East Tournament was absolutely filthy. Here is visual evidence. The sidebar discussion you should have off of this: what was more impressive, what G-Mac did in New York or Randolph Childress back in the mid-1990s? (Here's visual evidence of that.)
	2 (410)	BEN GORDON (2004)	He dropped 81 points in UConn's run to the conference tournament title that year, which is fairly impressive. Here's some "vid" of the title game win over Pitt, which was fairly close. Sidebar for this one: how the heck did Georgia Tech make the NCAA Tournament final that year and how good a game was that UConn vs. Duke Final 4 battle that season?
	3 (21)	RAY ALLEN (1996)	This is how ridiculous the '96 Big East Tournament was: everyone remembers it as Allen Iverson vs. Ray Allen, but Victor Page actually won the MVP of the whole thang. Here's some moving images of what Allen did in that run.
	4 (127)	ALLEN IVERSON (1996)	Use the above link to find some Iverson, then also watch this bad boy: 'tis his performance against Miami in that same Big East Tournament.
	5 (899)	LEO RAUTINS (1981)	We wanted to nod to history here: you can bag this because 'Cuse won it at the Carrier Dome, but it was a tight OT victory over 'Nova and started to establish the Big East Tournament as a place to find thrills (and chills?) We also like that Rautins' kid balls for Boeheim, too: familial connections give us warm fuzzies.

HONORABLE MENTION
RANK (YESTERDAY)		WHAT	WHY
	18 (144)	TERRY DEHERE (1993)	We really loved Dehere, both for (a) what he means to the history of Seton Hall (to heck with you, Rumeal Robinson) and (b) his history with St. Anthony's. Anyway, his '93 run was fairly strong. There are better candidates to put here, and we admit that, but we wanted to show love to another Big East school.
	28 (701)	JEFF GREEN (2007)	You can say we're showing GU too much love on here, but to be honest: he scored 30 against Notre Dame in the Hoyas' 2007 run, then led them over Pitt in the finals. Team made the Final Four that season, too. Without Green the next year, Pitt rocked GU. Coincidence? Probably not.

RISING AND FALLING
MOVEMENT		WHAT
		LUKE HARANGODY (He's gonna have to do some things this year, no?)
		THE 1985 TOURNAMENT (Not really "falling," but click that link. We wanted to include it. Classic stuff.)

Print Article . Email Article. Subscribe to The Magazine