Throughout the years, it seems like there’s always those couple of players in the NBA that come into the Garden and never fail to drop crazy numbers. In the ‘90s, Reggie Miller almost made his career by beating the Knicks single-handedly on their home floor.

More recently, LeBron James has simultaneously turned into Madison Square Garden’s most formidable foe and its most anticipated favorite son-to-be.

If James does indeed sign with the Knicks this upcoming summer — many expect he will — who’ll take his spot as The Garden’s Great Villian?

I nominate John Wall.

Assuming he enters the draft after this year — again, many expect he will — one lucky team will hit jackpot in the draft lottery. It won’t be the Knicks, because the Knicks don’t have a first-rounder in 2010.

But whichever team it is, that lucky team with the No. 1 pick next June only needs to look at one video clip to make up its mind and draft Wall. Pull Wednesday’s game video, watch, and send word to David Stern that No. 2 is on the clock.

With Wednesday’s game up for grabs against Connecticut, Wall played like The Country’s Best Player in The World’s Most Famous Arena. UK just couldn’t fully shake itself of that nasty mid-game drag, during which UConn turned a crippling deficit into a commanding lead.

Wall wasn’t about to lose his first game at UK. Not on that famous floor, not under those lights. To keep that record perfect, he had to make UK’s final three field goals, one of which was a bruising up-and-under while being fouled.

So he did.

“We needed baskets,” Patrick Patterson said. “Pretty much, we knew who to get the ball to.”

In nine collegiate games, Wall has now single-handedly put UK in position to win late in three. Saying he’s the man to get the ball to isn’t going out on much of a limb.

Now, he has to be the go-to guy in way-too-early talks regarding an eventual national player of the year. No other player in the country — except for a few in the big boys’ league — has demonstrated his ability to affect the outcome of a game by himself like Wall has. And he’s done it by driving to the basket or beating his man with a pull-up jumper. He did both effectively late Wednesday.

And now Wall has done it on the same floor Reggie Miller did it, and LeBron James has done it the past few years.

Spike Lee, get ready. No matter what jersey he dons, The Garden’s next great anti-hero is on his way.

James Pennington is a journalism senior. E-mail [email protected].