If the University of Connecticut had never got out of the first round of the 2011 Big East men's basketball tournament, Kemba Walker would still be recognized as one of the Big East's best players. Instead, the Huskies won that game, and Kemba Walker set in motion a series of events to make him justifiably ranked among the best to ever play in the conference.

By 2008, New York's place as the lodestar of high school basketball had dimmed - not a single new Yorker was selected in the NBA Draft that season. Its high school efforts had turned to a prototypical New York point guard from Brother Rice HS named Kemba Walker. Born in the city and raised in the Sack-Wern projects in the Bronx, Walker wasn't a streetball legend, but a player who understood his best skill was defense.

"I was always fast," Walker said in 2010. "Growing up, I wasn't really much of an offensive threat so defense is what got me by a lot. I always loved to [play defense]."

It wasn't his only talent. As part of a hip-hop troupe in junior high school, Walker appeared three times on the "Showtime at the Apollo" television series.

"It was a great experience, just like playing at the Garden," he told the New York Daily News. "If you sing or dance or play music, the Apollo is the ultimate. If you play basketball, the Garden is the ultimate."

Walker rose to be the top New York city recruit of 2008, and the only new York prospect in the top 60 nationally. Recruited by St. John's, Providence, and Cincinnati, he opted for the big East, but committed to Connecticut following his junior year.

As a freshman, Walker was the fourth scoring option on a remarkable 2008-09 Connecticut team, one of the greatest Big East teams never to win an NCAA title. The Huskies were never ranked lower than fifth nationally, and held the #1 ranking for four of the last five weeks of the regular season. Led by guard A.J. Price, UConn entered the post-season 27-3, with two losses to a Pittsburgh team ranked #3 nationally and the defending conference champions. The two teams figured to meet each other in the tournament until UConn entered the late night quarterfinal of March 12, 2009. Walker had a rough night, shooting 4 for 18 but hitting a jumper to send the game into overtime. Walker played 52 minutes in the epic six overtime game, won by Syracuse 127-117. The teams combined for 102 points beyond regulation and ended the game just short of 2:00 am Thursday morning. The Huskies would not win another Big East tournament game for the next two two seasons.

Undeterred, the Huskies were on a roll in the NCAA tournament, Walker scored 23 in UConn's semifinal win over Missouri, but just five in the national final versus Michigan State. There was little doubt Walker was the future star that the Husky fans had come to expect.

Walker was the bright light on a disappointing 2009-10 season in Storrs, where the Huskies lost four starters from the 2008-09 team. He averaged 14.6 points per game for a UConn team that was 11-3 to start the season, including an upset of #1-ranked Texas, but finished 7-11 in Big East play. Walker was named to the third team all-Big East list but expectations were raised for 2010-11. He did not disappoint.

From the opening moments of the 2010-11 season, Walker's play was exemplary. On November 17 against vermont, he scored a career high 42 points, and followed it up in the Maui Invitational with with 31 on Wichita State, 30 versus Michigan State and 29 versus Kentucky.

"We were leaving Maui, not ranked, unusual for us at that point; people didn't realize how good Kemba was," said former UConn coach Jim Calhoun. "Well, [Kemba] gets on the bus and the entire team stood up and clapped. Everybody says that's not unusual. Yeah, it is. They stood up in reverence and clapped, because of who he was and what he was."

Never a three point marksman (Walker averaged less than two three pointers a game), his inside game and defense was without peer this season. He scored 30 or more seven times in the regular season en route to a 23.5 points per game average, and led the Big East in 11 different statistical categories.

A first team All-Big East selection, Walker was passed over for Player of the Year in favor of Notre Dame's Ben Hansborough, as much a reflection of ND's 14-4 conference record than an affirmation of Hansborough's play over Walker's. UConn was good but not great in 2010-11, finishing an even 9-9 in the conference, relegating them to a Tuesday opener in the Big East tournament against #9-seeded DePaul. It was in that game, and that week, that Kemba Walker changed the history of Big East basketball.

Walker scored 26 in the Huskies' 97-71 win, an outcome that was never in doubt. The Huskies shot 18 for 23 in the second half while the Blue Demons, having lost to Syracuse by 48 in the regular season finale, just couldn't keep up. UConn advanced to meet #8 seed Georgetown, where Walker scored 28 in the Huskies' 79-62 win. The next step was considerably more challenging, however, as UConn prepared for a third game in three days versus top-seed and fourth ranked Pittsburgh.

A double digit underdog by some counts, UConn never wavered against the top seed. Tied at 74 in the final 15 seconds, and amidst the crowd of 19,591 standing in unison, Walker got the ball and never gave it up. With a favorable matchup off a screen against Pitt forward Gary McGhee, Walker faked McGhee out twice and took an open step back jumper in the final second. The ball sailed through the hoop as time expired, becoming the greatest game winner in tournament history.

 
The Huskies' improbable run continued into the semifinal versus #12 Syracuse, where the teams had met two years earlier in the six overtime game. Walker went for 33 points and 12 rebounds in the game, as UConn won in overtime, 76-71. Walker could be excused for being just a little tired in the final versus Louisville, but scored 19 as the Huskies completed the fifth win in five days, 69-66, for its seventh Big East title.

Previous long runs by Big East teams in the conference tournament took its toll in the NCAA tournament, but Walker's run was far from over. He opened with 18 versus Bucknell in the opener, than followed with 33 versus Cincinnati and 36 in the regional semifinal versus San Diego State. Walker's 20 led the Huskies in a one point win over Arizona in the regional final, and the Huskies had now won nine straight en route to the Final Four. Walker continued the magic with 18 points in UConn's 56-55 upset of Kentucky in the semifinal, and helped hold Butler to 19 second half points as the Huskies won the 2011 title 53-41. Walker's 141 points in NCAA play set a new record, and he was named the tournament's most valuable player.

To no surprise, Walker left UConn after his junior season for the NBA draft, selected ninth overall by the Charlotte Bobcats. A four time All-Star, Walker averaged 20 points a game through a nine year NBA career and became the first UConn player ever selected to an NBA All-Star Game.

Years later, Calhoun can still remember the excitement.

"The magic of five games, five days in the Big East Tournament, I think it's one of the stories that doesn't get told enough," Calhoun told the Connecticut Post in 2019. "I hear a lot about Danny and the Miracles, but that's Kansas and this is a guy, maybe 5-11, who wasn't national player of the year...Nobody did more for a team than Kemba that year."