Anyone remember these infamous losses / events?

[McLovin]

I had forgotten about number 1 but it’s the reason when guys on the board got excited about an early season ranking that I roll my eyes .
Getting excited about rankings in December is a huge waste of energy.
It invariably sets you up for a fall and that dreaded “ Overrated, Overrated “ chant. I hate that chant . It’s much more fun going into the tourney underrated. 1999 as good as we were we didn’t get much love going in . 2011 the 5-5 and Kemba in the Big East Tournament made us famous . 2004 at full strength nobody could touch us .
2014 was simply amazing
I believe we were the underdog in every game and every win was a yes but that’s their last one..
In the FF fan poll only single digits % selected us to win the other 90+% were divided pretty evenly.

In 1999 the lowest AP ranking UConn had all season was 4 lmao.

AP rankings don’t mean anything about a teams chances to win it all, but it does give the team a ton a free marketing and national media exposure.

The past month the national sports media talks very little about unranked Duke, UNC and Kentucky but have been giving tons of coverage to teams like Purdue, Tennessee and Houston.

Rankings mean nothing in terms of ability to win, but you can’t say it’s a “waste of energy” to care about them when we are trying to re-establish our brand on a national level.

 

[CTBasketball]

In 1999 the lowest AP ranking UConn had all season was 4 lmao.

AP rankings don’t mean anything about a teams chances to win it all, but it does give the team a ton a free marketing and national media exposure.

The past month the national sports media talks very little about unranked Duke, UNC and Kentucky but have been giving tons of coverage to teams like Purdue, Tennessee and Houston.

Rankings mean nothing in terms of ability to win, but you can’t say it’s a “waste of energy” to care about them when we are trying to re-establish our brand on a national level.

Everyone’s talking about us being overrated and collapsing, so I’d enjoy not having that media attention.

 

[willie99]

I remember some talking head after the game saying GT stormed back to make it respectable at the end. Umm no, JC took the foot off the gas not wanting to embarrass those kids. Uconn couldve won by 30.

They hit like 4 threes in the last minute

Were + 30 in the second half, and plus 20 with two minutes left

The outcome was never in doubt

 

[uconngb]

The Laettner shot has to be number one given what was at stake but a close second was a shot that I knew would be devastating when it happened, and it didn’t even happen in a UConn game.

Tyus Edny (UCLA) buzzer beater to take out Missouri in the round of 32 during the 1995 NCAA tourney. UCLA was the number 1 team in the country I believe and the only team that I thought had a chance to beat UConn. The Ray Allen led Huskies lost 102-96 in the Elite 8. Ray had 36 and was unstoppable. If the Edny Miracle doesn’t happen, we get our first chip.

Great call

 

[NJHusky]

When we played Georgia Tech the second time Calhoun took some offense to their comments that they handled us no problem the first time. JC said something like ,”You think you can run with us? You don’t know anything about running with us.” We blew their doors off. It’s pretty funny.

Ya mean the coach adapted the game plan after the first game? Without waiting to be down by 17? Interesting idea.

 

[McLovin]

Everyone’s talking about us being overrated and collapsing, so I’d enjoy not having that media attention.

I watched college game day on Saturday and they were picking their title contenders… Seth Greenberg said UConn is still a legit title contender and Bilas agreed. The only national media guy I’ve heard say we are overrated is Seth Davis who is a moron (and also an AP voter who constantly had us too low, so it felt personal). Most of the melt down has been our own fan base haha

 

[CTBasketball]

I watched college game day on Saturday and they were picking their title contenders… Seth Greenberg said UConn is still a legit title contender and Bilas agreed. The only national media guy I’ve heard say we are overrated is Seth Davis who is a moron (and also an AP voter who constantly had us too low, so it felt personal). Most of the melt down has been our own fan base haha

 

[nelsonmuntz]

There are two big tournament games where I thought Calhoun didn't coach his best game:

1) 1994 Florida - In a game where UConn could not through the ball in the ocean in the second half, Brian Fair plays 4 minutes and Travis Knight only plays 26 minutes and only takes 5 shots. I get that Fair was defense optional on his good days and Knight didn't exactly remind anyone of Mutombo, but UConn didn't need defense in this game. UConn needed baskets.

2) 1995 UCLA - I think of this as more of a huge gamble by Harrick that paid off big. Harrick was releasing Toby Bailey off of UConn's shot. This could have blown up big against UCLA. UConn did end up outrebounding UCLA, but Bailey had a lot of easy, fastbreak baskets. This was another game where more Knight would have been better too. He didn't play great defense, but he was 6 for 9 with 13 boards in only 26 minutes.

 

[TheChamps990411]

There are two big tournament games where I thought Calhoun didn't coach his best game:

1) 1994 Florida - In a game where UConn could not through the ball in the ocean in the second half, Brian Fair plays 4 minutes and Travis Knight only plays 26 minutes and only takes 5 shots. I get that Fair was defense optional on his good days and Knight didn't exactly remind anyone of Mutombo, but UConn didn't need defense in this game. UConn needed baskets.

2) 1995 UCLA - I think of this as more of a huge gamble by Harrick that paid off big. Harrick was releasing Toby Bailey off of UConn's shot. This could have blown up big against UCLA. UConn did end up outrebounding UCLA, but Bailey had a lot of easy, fastbreak baskets. This was another game where more Knight would have been better too. He didn't play great defense, but he was 6 for 9 with 13 boards in only 26 minutes.

Id like to watch that UCLA game again. Anyone know where to find it?

 

[mauconnfan]

There are two big tournament games where I thought Calhoun didn't coach his best game:

1) 1994 Florida - In a game where UConn could not through the ball in the ocean in the second half, Brian Fair plays 4 minutes and Travis Knight only plays 26 minutes and only takes 5 shots. I get that Fair was defense optional on his good days and Knight didn't exactly remind anyone of Mutombo, but UConn didn't need defense in this game. UConn needed baskets.

2) 1995 UCLA - I think of this as more of a huge gamble by Harrick that paid off big. Harrick was releasing Toby Bailey off of UConn's shot. This could have blown up big against UCLA. UConn did end up outrebounding UCLA, but Bailey had a lot of easy, fastbreak baskets. This was another game where more Knight would have been better too. He didn't play great defense, but he was 6 for 9 with 13 boards in only 26 minutes.

Agree. But the truth is when you’re in a ton of BIG games your plan isn’t always going to work. Remember he also made Coach K look bad in a few.

We haven’t had any of those type of games as of late and most that were close to that didn’t go our way!

 

[Malamute]

Things aren’t tough enough since the crash after awesome start that we want to remember worst times? SMH

Fair enough Captain. Let me offer a more positive story since you seem a bit wound tight, a way to bring back the Mojo.

This story centers around the last timeout in the 1999 National Championship game as told directly to me by one of the Uconn assistant coaches that was in the huddle. We all know the scenario, immediately preceding the timeout, Ricky Moore causes Trajan Langdon to travel in the lane while driving to the hoop. Uconn ball 5.4 seconds left under the Duke basket. Uconn calls timeout.

During the timeout, Calhoun spends 2 minutes drawing up a detailed play designed to get Hamilton the rock who no doubt would get fouled and go to the line. El-Amin would have none of it and approached the assistant coach in the middle of the TO and demanded to run the Diamond play (a play designed to get Kahlid the ball) as he held his hands above his head in a triangle formation. Towards the end of the timeout, the coach goes over to Calhoun and exclaims “Kahlid wants to run Diamond”. Calhoun turns to the team and deadpans “forget what I just drew up, we are running Diamond”.

Ball is inbounded to El-Amin, he is fouled, Duke calls last timeout with 5.2 seconds left, El-Amin calmly sinks both free throws (previously 0 for 2 in the game from the stripe) and the rest is history. Uconn 77, Duke 74, the most satisfying victory in Uconn history.

 

[Kenny11]

Did we lose to st. Bonny’s before 2002? Like in the late 90’s. I have a memory of losing to them earlier than 2002. I was listening to it on the radio in my mom’s car as a kid and I remember being mad. Maybe it was a different team.

 

[J187Money]

Yeah, the Florida loss hurt more than George Mason, I think. We hadn’t been to a Final Four yet, and the missed free throws by Donyell seemed like more of a sure thing than Denham Brown’s missed three in OT. Winning four titles sure does take the sting off of all of those horrific losses.

GM was worse for me because I was there. But otherwise yes, Florida was worse.

 

[RichZ]

We had good veteran guards 11 and 14. Also, not sure we’d win in ‘14 if not for our insane foul shooting percentage.

61 for 66 in the last 5 minutes and OT during the tourney.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

61 for 66 in the last 5 minutes and OT during the tourney.

Calipari I knew what he was talking about.

 

[Scottobot]

Most painful for me was watching Hartford Hawks beating UConn 48-46 in ugly rock right during Calhoun’s first season at Hartford Civic Center. As the crowds exited the civic center that night people were actually saying they missed former coach Don Perno, and hiring Calhoun was a mistake. Thank god we has some patience and didn’t rush to judgement after Calhoun’s disappointing 9-19 first season with UConn.

 

[CL82]

@willie99 Nice thread! This team has the tools to go on a good run in the NCAA tournament. We just have some work to do before now and then. I think we took a step in the right direction in the second half of the last game. Newton just needs to be more confident and assertive. It’s a tiny, tweak, but one that would make a big difference.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

The 30 for 30 where I stole my handle from didn’t really talk much about Laettner’s the shot against us until the very end when CL wanted to show his kid the replay of it. I wanted to jump through the TV. There have been several disappointments since then but that one still hurts to most IMO. The loss to George Mason is a fairly close second. I thought we would be sleepwalking into the Final Four that year.

 

[Husky1]

i remember a ncaa game to advance us to final 8 or final 4 when Donyell missed 2 straight foul shots to win it in final final minute - it was crazy because he was like a 85% ft shooter all year. I think the game against Florida

 

[bcisco]

Id like to watch that UCLA game again. Anyone know where to find it?

 

[uconngb]

The 30 for 30 where I stole my handle from didn’t really talk much about Laettner’s the shot against us until the very end when CL wanted to show his kid the replay of it. I wanted to jump through the TV. There have been several disappointments since then but that one still hurts to most IMO. The loss to George Mason is a fairly close second. I thought we would be sleepwalking into the Final Four that year.

Yeah we sleepwalked all right…..

 

[alphasigko]

The 30 for 30 where I stole my handle from didn’t really talk much about Laettner’s the shot against us until the very end when CL wanted to show his kid the replay of it. I wanted to jump through the TV. There have been several disappointments since then but that one still hurts to most IMO. The loss to George Mason is a fairly close second. I thought we would be sleepwalking into the Final Four that year.

Am in full agreement... See my post #15 on Pg 1 of this thread

 

[gsmooth]

i remember a ncaa game to advance us to final 8 or final 4 when Donyell missed 2 straight foul shots to win it in final final minute - it was crazy because he was like a 85% ft shooter all year. I think the game against Florida

He also had the Big East record for most FTs made in a game without a miss shooting 20 for 20 in the St. John's game at MSG which turned out to be the first time UConn had ever beaten St. John's on their home court (MSG or Alumni Hall). That's what made it so disappointing. At that moment there was probably no one else UConn fans wanted at the FT line than Donyell.