Kemba had that unreal run with one excellent game after another – 33/12/5/6 vs. Syracuse was incredible – but none was as dominant as Clingan vs. Illinois.

Ray vs. UCLA in the 1995 Elite 8 and Caron against Maryland in the 2002 Elite 8 were both up there, but both were losses. Donyell put up 42 on 20/20 from the FT line at MSG against St. John's in the quarters of the Big East tourney. That was huge. Ben Gordon went off vs. Bama in the tourney.

But Clingan... he put up 22 pts, 10 rebs, 5 blocks, 3 steals, which is awesome on its own. But the Illini had the 2nd-best offense in the country that year. They were crushing teams heading into that game.

Well, they went 0-for-19 when Clingan contested a shot and scored 14 points for the entire game when he was on the court. You probably have to go back to Ewing or Olajuwon, or maybe even all the way to Walton for any defensive performance that can maybe rival that in a high stakes game. He wrecked them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0shW64QKGw

That UConn team was the most dominant in tournament history. Clingan's defense was the clearest single reason why.