Kansas Basketball: 15 greatest scorers in Jayhawks history
By Brian Rauf
Greatest scorers in Kansas basketball history: 3. Clyde Lovellette
As a skilled 6-foot-9 center, Clyde Lovellette dominated opponents during his three seasons with the KU varsity team and led the program to its first-ever national championship in 1952.
How did he do it? By being the biggest and best scoring threat in the country thanks to being one of the first big men that was effective shooting a jumper, often forcing opposing bigs to play out of position.
Lovellette was the focal point of KU’s attack whenever he was on the court, as he never averaged fewer than 20 shots per game for a season.
He produced with that much opportunity, averaging 21.8 points per game as a sophomore, 22.8 as a junior, and then a whopping 28.4 as a senior – the highest per game average in school history for anyone not named Wilt Chamberlain (there needs to be this clause in the official Kansas record book).
His 24.7 points per game average is the second-highest in school history (guess who), and his 1,979 points is still fourth on KU’s all-time list, despite playing 51 fewer games than the man ahead of him (Raef LaFrentz) and 63 fewer than the guy behind him (Sherron Collins).
Lovellette also still holds some impressive college records. The two-time First-Team All-American is still the only collegiate player to lead the nation in scoring and win the national championship in the same season. He’s one of seven players ever to win a college national championship, Olympic gold medal and an NBA title.
He won three of those titles during his pro career, all which bookended his career. He won as a rookie in 1953 with the then-Minneapolis Lakers while backing up George Mikan, then won in 1963 and 1964 with the Boston Celtics while backing up Bill Russell. In between, Lovellette made four NBA All-Star teams.