ESPN will reveal the answer during Saturday night's Duke-North Carolina game as it completes its 25 greatest college players. No. 2 was Oscar Robertston of Cincinnati, No. 3 was Bill Walton of UCLA, No. 4 Bill Russell of San Francisco, No. 5 the Pistol, Pete Maravich of LSU.
No. 1, of course, will be the man John Wooden referred to as "Lewis Kareem." As a sophomore, Lew Alcindor scored 61 points against Washington State, hitting 26 of 35 field-goal attempts. Maybe it was this game or another high-scoring output, but the story is that a player who gave up a lot of points to Alcindor told his coach, "I'll be the guy who gave up 50 points, but you'll be the only coach dumb enough to play him one-on-one."
The man who changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 56 points in his first varsity game in the 1966-67 season. He couldn't play varsity as a freshman under the rules at the time, but in one game of note, he led the UCLA freshman to a 75-60 victory over the UCLA varsity. The UCLA varsity was the two-time defending national champion.
-- Vince Langford
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