Walker simply shook his head. He had no answers for the past nine games, all elimination contests, all UConn victories. Taken together, those games comprise the single best stretch not only of Walker’s career, but also perhaps in the history of UConn men’s basketball. The next installment will take place Saturday in Houston, against Kentucky in the Final Four.
“What he’s doing is unprecedented,” said Dallas Mavericks forward Caron Butler, one in a long line of N.B.A. players from Connecticut. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Starting March 8, UConn played nine games in the Big East and N.C.A.A. tournaments. Walker logged 344 of 365 possible minutes in those games and averaged 26.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.2 steals. He made a buzzer-beater against Pittsburgh, grabbed 12 rebounds against Syracuse, had 12 assists against Bucknell and scored 36 points against San Diego State.
Ben Gordon, a former UConn guard now with the Detroit Pistons, is one of the few who compiled a similar stretch of sustained brilliance. He still remembers what it felt like. In 2004, he led the Huskies to Big East and N.C.A.A. tournament titles with an unshakeable focus. Even in class, or during down time, he was consumed with basketball, with the run. He thought of nothing else.
Yet Gordon’s 2004 team featured seven future N.B.A. players, including Emeka Okafor, who was named the tournament’s outstanding player. Because the current Huskies have seven freshmen, five of whom play regularly, Butler, Okafor and Gordon, in separate telephone interviews, described Walker’s run as beyond anything they accomplished. Okafor called it “more remarkable” for its five Big East victories in five days, the first time that has been accomplished. Gordon used “more impressive” and said the N.B.A. equivalent would be sweeping every series in the playoffs.
Perhaps the closest comparison came from Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim, who invoked Carmelo Anthony’s 2003 N.C.A.A. championship run with Boeheim’s team. Most great UConn players, Boeheim said, played alongside skilled sidekicks, like Donyell Marshall with Ray Allen, or Khalid El-Amin with Richard Hamilton. Others, like Butler, saw their best runs end earlier than Walker’s.
“He’s had to do the most,” Boeheim said. “Kemba has the youngest group of guys you could possibly have, so what he’s done is more impressive than anyone in a long time.”
The seeds for Walker’s run were sown last summer, when his teammate Alex Oriakhi repeatedly told Walker he was the best point guard in the country and the associate head coach George Blaney added another dimension to Walker’s game. Blaney said Walker, a Bronx native, arrived in college like most New York City guards: he ran as fast as he could, as far as he could, at a breakneck pace that disrupted fundamentals.
Last summer, Blaney overhauled the mechanics of Walker’s jump shot. Walker took 500 to 1,000 attempts each day. By summer’s end, Blaney said he could already see a difference.
“That,” Blaney added, “was the final piece.”
Having a reliable jumper made Walker more versatile, more dangerous. But while he has scored more points (931) this season than any player in UConn history, he was not named the Big East player of the year. In fact, his star rose most sharply once the run started, and even Gordon said: “I didn’t expect him to emerge as the star that he is now. I don’t think anybody saw that coming.”
As it happened, as the interview requests and marriage proposals increased with Walker’s legend, he became tired most of hearing his own voice and seeing his own face. No matter what channel he turned to, he saw himself. “That’s frustrating,” he said Tuesday.
Walker has always showcased a similar duality. He loved to perform; as a young break dancer, he took the stage at The Apollo Theater in Harlem. The dance competitions were like N.C.A.A. tournaments: win and advance, lose and go home. In them, Walker honed his ability to please crowds.
Yet away from any kind of stage, Walker struck his teachers at nearby Rice High School as quiet, even reserved.
“A gentleman,” Sister Joan Whittle said while sitting in the library this week. “He was a sweetheart. He showed up to senior night after he graduated and stayed hidden until after the ceremony. He didn’t want to take anything away.”
Two of his teachers, John Shea and Michael Pagidas, remembered how Walker sat in the front row, how he picked up economics, or debated the novel “1984,” with ease. They also remember his basketball exploits, with his rise at Rice almost exactly like the one he has had at UConn.
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