In the storied history of NCAA Tournament legends, there are a few players whose name always seem to be forgotten. I challenge you to find an expert’s list of greatest tournament players and come across the name who scored the most points in a single March Madness run.
The total number of these points equals a ridiculous 184. It still stands to this day. In six tournament games in 1989, Michigan’s Glen Rice displayed a shooting touch of epic proportions, leading his squad to the school’s lone national championship.
Rice’s four-year stint in Ann Arbor proved he was a pure scoring machine. He left Michigan as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,442 points. The most impressive of his four seasons was his senior campaign where he shot a blistering 58 percent from the floor, including 52 percent from beyond the arc.
Glen Rice Scored 184 Points For Michigan In 1989 March Madness Title Run
Rice didn’t stop his red hot shooting at regular season’s end as he would elevate his performances heading into the tournament posting 23 and 36 point performances in the opening weekend.
In the Sweet 16 against North Carolina, he torched the Tar Heels with 34 points, going 13-for-19. Against Virginia in the Elite Eight, he missed only three of his 16 shots en route to a another 32-point outburst.
In the Final Four, he served up Illinois with 28 points and capped his incomparable NCAA Tourney run with a 31-point explosion against Seton Hall and Australian sharp-shooter Andrew Gaze in the national championship game. During his torrid six-game run, Rice connected on 57.2 % of his shots from the floor.
When it was all said and done Rice had a National Title and a record that still stands to this day; 184 points scored. To put it all in perspective, the only player to score more than 160 points in the last 65 years of the tournament is Danny Manning who did it one year earlier in 1988 (163 points). Juan Dixon (155 in 2002) and Jay Williams (154 in 2001) are the last players to score over 150 points during a Tourney run.
In 1989, Rice was a man amongst boys during March Madness with a string of performances that are yet to be duplicated.
While records are made to be broken, it will take quite a player to average 30-plus points over a six-game stretch in today’s style of play, let alone be able to score at such a high clip on a team that is good enough to win the national championship. There is something to be said about Rice and what he was able to accomplish. He was a beast as an NBA shooter too.
