Ranking the 10 Best Individual Performances in NCAA Basketball Through 1 Month

The 2014-15 college basketball season is only 28 days old, but there have already been 1,586 games from which to choose the 10 most incredible individual performances.

Well, technically, the number of games is closer to 1,400 because we disregarded all games played against D-II schools. Still, that's more than five times the number of games played in an entire NFL season, so there were plenty of options.

Given that smorgasbord, there was even a 40-point game that didn't make the cut for top 10.

Strength of opponent was taken into consideration, but the ranking logic really came down to finding out whether anyone else this season has done what the player did and subsequently asking if it can be done again.

In other words, if you are seeing these stat lines for the first time, they're hopefully ranked in ascending order of how loud you'll yell, "He did what?"

Honorable Mentions

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The 38-Point, 0-Assist Club

The first time a player scored 38 points without a single assist (Marcus Marshall on opening day against Eastern Illinois), it was odd but impressive. When it happened a second time (Ladontae Henton vs. Notre Dame on Nov. 23), it was a strange coincidence.

But then it happened two more times—Matt Carlino against Georgia Tech on Nov. 27 and Venky Jois against Seattle on Dec. 6.

That's pretty bizarre, right?

Jois' game was arguably the most impressive, because he had seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals. However, it's hard to argue that any of these games belongs in the top 10, considering it's apparently a common thing to do.

Montrezl Harrell vs. Minnesota

The further we get from Harrell's opening-night game—30 points on 3-of-4 three-point shooting and 9-of-10 free-throw shooting—the weirder it gets. He's 0-of-10 from three-point range since then, and he's barely making one out of two free throws.

It's definitely a noteworthy box score given who it was and how he did it, but it's nowhere near as eye-popping as some of the lines posted this season.

Shevon Thompson vs. New Mexico

As we'll note in a bit, Alan Williams is the only player this season to record 20 rebounds against a D-I team.

But how about a hand for George Mason's big freshman? In a losing effort in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, Thompson had 21 points and 19 rebounds.

BeeJay Anya vs. Jacksonville

Only two players in the country have recorded at least 10 blocks against a D-I opponent, and they both reside in North Carolina.

UNC-Asheville's Jaleel Roberts had 10 blocks, 12 rebounds and four points in an overtime loss to Charlotte, but it was Anya who was arguably a little more impressive, tallying 10 blocks, eight rebounds and seven points in just 25 minutes.

Sterling Gibbs vs. Illinois State

It's a tough call to omit a guy who scored 40 points, but he really didn't do anything else. Gibbs was on fire, hitting seven of nine three-point attempts and all 13 of his free throws. However, the rest of his contributions amounted to two steals, one assist, zero rebounds and three turnovers.

Kris Dunn vs. Navy; Shannon Scott vs. Sacred Heart

I'm a sucker for anyone who posted twice as many assists as field-goal attempts, even though the games were against dreadful opposition.

Scott holds the current record for assists in a game this season, tallying 16 of them in addition to 11 points, five rebounds and three steals in Ohio State's rout of Sacred Heart.

Dunn wasn't far behind, though, nearly recording a triple-double with 14 assists, 12 points, seven rebounds and three steals against Navy.

Both players attempted just seven shots.

10. Ousmane Drame vs. Vermont (Nov. 30)

The Line: 33 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks, two assists

Over the summer, I listed Ousmane Drame as one of the 10 best players from schools you've never heard of (Quinnipiac, in his case). I later put him at No. 3 on my list of the top double-double machines this season.

He hasn't disappointed.

Drame already has five double-doubles in just seven games, but the most impressive by far came against Vermont.

In just 26 minutes, he tallied 33 points and 13 rebounds.

He picked up his third foul with 18:01 remaining in the second half and was saddled on the bench for a while.

But the big man is rustproof. He came back in the game and scored 22 out of Quinnipiac's 24 points during an eight-minute stretch to put the game on ice.

9. Monte Morris vs. Georgia State (Nov. 19)

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The Line: 19 points, nine assists, five rebounds, one block, zero turnovers

While the rest of the world was obsessing over Fred VanVleet's turnover-free leadership at Wichita State, Monte Morris merely led the nation in assists per turnover ratio as a freshman.

He's well on his way to doing so again as a sophomore.

In what was supposed to be Georgia State's "we're a legitimate Cinderella team" statement game, Morris guided the Cyclones to the systematic destruction of the Panthers by a score of 81-58.

When you beat a quality team by 23 points while leading your team in both points and assists without committing a single turnover, we take notice.

This was the first in a two-game stretch in which Morris posted 21 assists without a turnover. He didn't score against Alabama, but he did have 12 assists in the 10-point win.

For the season, he has 41 assists against just six turnovers.

8. Gary Payton II vs. Mississippi Valley State (Dec. 3)

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The Line: 24 points, 16 rebounds, four steals, two assists, two blocks

As great as it was, this one could have been a whole lot better.

In the final 11 minutes of the game, Gary Payton II had one point and no other stats.

Eighteen minutes, 25 seconds into the game, he had already recorded a double-double.

And, oh yeah, did we mention that The Glove 2.0 is only 6'3"?

Granted, Mississippi Valley State is just about the worst team in the entire country. We're talking about a squad that scored 53 points in a 53-point loss to TCU. Through eight games, the Delta Devils have an average rebounding margin of minus-15.3.

Still, Payton put forth a valiant effort to post that line in effectively 29 minutes. He has now recorded three straight double-doubles and leads the Beavers in both points and rebounds.

7. Alan Williams vs. Mercer (Nov. 28)

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The Line: 22 points, 20 rebounds, six blocks, one assist, one steal

Alan Williams' entire career is a ridiculous box score.

One day, someone is going to write about the 25 best games of Williams' four years at UC Santa Barbara, complete with Vines, Ken Pomeroy tweets and interviews from the player himself, and the Internet will rejoice.

Thus far in his senior season, though, this was the best of the bunch, as he set a season high in both blocks and rebounds.

Williams is the only player in the country to have recorded at least 20 rebounds against a D-I opponent—Pittsburgh's Derrick Randall did have 21 boards against Chaminade in the Maui Invitational—but it should probably be noted that he needed overtime against Mercer to get there.

If you feel that takes away from the allure of the box score, let's just call this one a placeholder until Williams does something truly ridiculous.

6. Schadrac Casimir vs. Delaware State (Nov. 26)

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The Line: 40 points, four assists, two steals, two rebounds

Three days before this game against Delaware State, Schadrac Casimir didn't score against North Texas.

In his first game after this one, Arkansas held him to three points.

However, Delaware State couldn't do a single thing to slow down the 5'10" freshman shooting guard.

Casimir was 3-of-4 from inside the arc, 8-of-9 behind it and 10-of-11 from the free-throw line for a total of 40 points.

Everyone got in on the action on this night for the Gaels. A.J. English had 26 points, and Isaiah Williams had 25. Iona won by a score of 126-76, recording 35 assists on 41 made field goals.

Two days later, Delaware State went on the road and beat Wake Forest, holding the Demon Deacons to 65 points.

5. Richaun Holmes vs. Detroit (Nov. 30)

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The Line: 26 points, 18 rebounds, five blocks

Based on what Richaun Holmes put up against Detroit, you might think this was a 77-possession game with scores in the 90s, but this was a 64-possession game that Bowling Green won by a score of 64-63.

Holmes scored 40.6 percent of the Falcons' points and grabbed 43.9 percent of their rebounds. He was also responsible for 100 percent of their blocked shots.

Best of all, he blocked a crucial shot in the final minute and made the game-winning layup as time expired—after the two teams combined to call three timeouts after Juwan Howard Jr. put Detroit up by one with three seconds remaining.

Holmes made 10 of 12 field goals in one of the best individual efforts of the season.

4. Craig Bradshaw vs. Ohio (Nov. 29)

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The Line: 42 points, two rebounds, two assists

It pains me to put this game this high while only giving Sterling Gibbs' 40-point game an honorable mention. Is two points really that much of a difference?

On multiple levels, yes.

Because of Craig Bradshaw's two-point layup with one second remaining, Belmont beat Ohio in regulation. So at least for Belmont, the difference between 40 points and 42 points was a quality nonconference road win.

Moreover, those two points put Bradshaw in sole possession of the highest-scoring game this season.

It was the capstone to one heck of a week for Bradshaw. He had 29 points against Lipscomb on Monday. He had 28 against Denver on Wednesday. Then he had this 42-point game on Saturday.

Scoring 99 points in a week is pretty noteworthy for most NBA players, let alone a 6'3" shooting guard from Belmont.

3. Frank Kaminsky vs. Green Bay (Nov. 19)

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The Line: 20 points, 15 rebounds, seven blocks, two assists, one steal

This game confirmed that seven months of talking about Wisconsin as a national championship contender wasn't completely insane.

Green Bay is a good team. The Phoenix just won by 13 at Miami this past weekend and also already have neutral-court wins over Evansville and Florida Gulf Coast. They should win the Horizon League with room to spare.

But Frank Kaminsky and Wisconsin made Green Bay look like a D-II team in an 84-60 rout.

Because it was such a blowout, Kaminsky didn't even get a chance to pile on the stats. He scored his final point of the game with 10:11 remaining on the clock. He put up 20 points in 30 minutes of game time without making any of his three-point attempts.

The blocks were the real kicker, though.

In the entire Gulf Coast Showcase, Green Bay attempted 146 shots and only had two of them blocked. But Kaminsky single-handedly blocked seven Phoenix shots on this night.

He hasn't had more than three blocks in a game since.

2. Briante Weber vs. Toledo (Nov. 18)

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The Line: 18 points, nine steals, eight rebounds, seven assists

It would be embarrassing to admit how much time was spent struggling with this decision.

In the end, though, the actual triple-double was more impressive than the near quadruple-double.

This game against Toledo was Briante Weber's first of the season, as he sat out the opener against Tennessee because of petit larceny.

I don't mean to make light of breaking the law, but it's ironic that Weber set the current 2014-15 record for steals in a game after serving a one-game suspension for stealing an iPhone.

It was more than just the steals, though, because he was flirting with the exceptionally rare quadruple-double.

Granted, they didn't always keep track of steals and blocks, but Tennessee-Martin's Lester Hudson is the only male D-I player to ever record a quadruple-double. He did so against a D-II school (Central Baptist) in November 2007.

If Weber had pulled it off against D-I Toledo, it might have instantly become the greatest box score in college basketball history.

Alas, close but no cigar, as he didn't even end up tallying a double-double in the game.

1. Kyle Collinsworth vs. Hawaii (Dec. 6)

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The Line: 19 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, two blocks, one steal

There have been three triple-doubles this season, but only one of them was against a D-I school.

But let's go back to last March to really drive home how incredible the feat was.

On March 11 in the WCC championship game, Kyle Collinsworth landed awkwardly on his right knee and was helped to the locker room. BYU's worst fears were confirmed within 24 hours as it was announced that he had torn his ACL and would undergo surgery to repair the damage.

Apparently, Collinsworth is more resilient than Derrick Rose, because less than nine months after that surgery, he posted a triple-double against Hawaii.

To be fair, the Cougars did somewhat unnecessarily force the issue. He got his 10th and final assist on an in-bounds play to Tyler Haws with 2:45 remaining in an 18-point game. Given the recent surgery, it's almost crazy to think they would risk having him on the court that late in a blowout.

Jeff Call of the Deseret News got the scoop straight from Collinsworth: "When I had nine assists, they told me I needed one more. So they drew up a play, and Ty made it. It’s just a credit to my teammates. They’re such great shooters that it makes it really easy to get assists."

Kudos to Dave Rose and his staff, because 19 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists wouldn't have even made a blip on our radar.

With that 10th assist, though, Collinsworth has the best stat line through one month of the season.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.