Newton’s name now next to Shaq, Admiral on the NCAA’S all-time triple-double list
Uconn point guard Tristen Newton’s triple double tendencies have him in some heady company when it comes to the NCAA’S all-time leaderboard.
Newton is already the Huskies’ all-time leader in the stat, having posted the fourth triple double of his career in a win over Villanova on Saturday. No other Husky has more than two.
And now, he’s approaching Big Diesel territory.
Newton’s four triple doubles are the most by a power-conference player since Shaquille O’neal, who posted six while at LSU from 198992. The fifth-year guard is also one of only 17 players in NCAA history
to have posted four career triple doubles.
Newton is currently tied with Basketball Hall of Famers David Robinson (Navy), Jason Kidd (California), and current NBA superstar Ja Morant (Murray State). If he can rack up one more triple double, he’d move up to a tie for fourth– as one of only eight players in history to record five in his career.
Fittingly, Newton has also been named to the Oscar Robertson Trophy Watch List as U.S. Basketball Writers Association Player of the Year. ‘The Big O’ set some triple double records of his own during his NBA career, becoming the first player ever to average one for a full season in 1962.
Still, not even The Big Aristotle could have predicted the impact that Newton would have when he transferred to Uconn from East Carolina in 2022.
It’s amazing to think that last Feb. 29 (four years ago), Newton was a sophomore at ECU, facing the Huskies in one of the final games of the regular season. He scored 25 points, dished out six assists and grabbed five rebounds in that game, an 84-63 win for the Huskies. When he announced he would enter the transfer portal at
the end of the following season, Dan Hurley and his staff were all over him.
In just two seasons in Storrs, Newton has carved out a unique place in school history, so much so that The Daily Campus’ Cole Stefan is already arguing he deserves a spot in the Huskies of Honor.
Newton and the Huskies have bigger things on their minds than the triple doubles leaderboard, but his prodigious talent in that category is almost fitting for the strange yet brilliant college career he’s had thus far.
Triple-doubles all-time list
Kyle Collinsworth, BYU (2010-16), 12
Michael Anderson, Drexel (1984-88) 6
Shaquille O’neal, LSU
(1989-92) 6
Brian Shaw, St. Mary’s (CA)/UC-SANTA Barbara (1983-88) 5
Kevin Roberson, Vermont (1988-92) 5
Shawn James, Northeastern/duquesne (2004-08) 5
Vonterius Woolbright, Western Carolina (202124) 5
Tristen Newton, East Carolina/uconn (201924) 4
David Robinson, Navy (1983-87) 4
Jason Kidd, California (1992-94) 4
David Edwards, Georgetown/texas A&M (19891994) 4
Adonal Foyle, Colgate (1994-1997) 4
Stephane Lasme, Massachusetts (2003-2007) 4 Jesse Sanders, Liberty (2008-2012) 4
Ja Morant, Murray St. (20172019) 4
Chandler Vaudrin, Winthrop (2019-2021) 4
Gerald Lewis, SMU (198993) 4