Early Explosion: McLemore May Be KU's First Frosh A-A Since Valentine's Day

Forward Ben McLemore is bound to become Kansas' first freshman All-American since guard Darnell Valentine in 1977-78 after the academic redshirt poured in 36 points against West Virginia, marking the highest-scoring performance by a yearling in KU history. McLemore broke the previous frosh standard set in 1984-85 by eventual national player of the year Danny Manning, the current Tulsa coach who failed to earn All-American acclaim as a first-year player.

McLemore's outburst fell well short of Wilt Chamberlain's school-record 52 points against Northwestern in 1956-57 before freshmen were eligible. Wilt's coming-out party is the only existing single-game scoring record achieved in a varsity debut.

Cliff Clavin knows that Chamberlain scored many of the points in his inaugural against fellow sophomore Joe Ruklick. They would later be NBA teammates after becoming the first two draft choices for the Philadelphia Warriors in 1959. Ruklick averaged only 3.5 ppg in his three-year career as Wilt's backup, but supplied one of the most worthy yet long-forgotten assists in hoops history. Ruklick fed Chamberlain a pass in the closing seconds of a memorable March 1, 1962, game in Hershey, Pa., resulting in Wilt scoring his 99th and 100th points of the evening.

One of the single-game scoring marks for an NCAA Division I school set by a freshman goes back more than 90 years and another was set by a current coach in the ACC. Following is a chronological list of the modest number of eight freshmen who established existing school single-game scoring records at the DI level: