Change history. You decide

[RichZ]

Laetner 1990.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

2011 Fiesta Bowl. UConn over Oklahoma, paves way to future success in football.

This is not a bad idea.

Change the 24-3 loss to Cincy in football in 2007. If we win that game, we go into the last game of the year 10-1 playing WVU in a de-facto CFP semifinal.

You are also on the right track.

Another possibility is any one of the three early losses in 2011 (P's first season). We had leads at Vandy and home against Iowa St throughout most of each game and fell apart over the last eight plus minutes. Against Western Michigan we fell behind early and spent the remainder of the game playing catchup. Every time we got there we had a lapse and let them score.

We were clearly the more talented team in each game, the one where we never led (WMU) was against the least talented of the three opponents.

A win in any of those games would have gotten us a bowl invitation (would have been fifth consecutive & sixth in eight seasons). A better start to the P tenure (especially when factoring in the precarious situation that developed in realignment) may have prevented the program from falling off a cliff.

 

[GemParty]

Lots of history to alter.

 

[businesslawyer]

Duke 1990 was 1000 times worse for me. I still hate Duke to this day because of that game.

I think that's right. Of the three UConn candidates, the loss to Florida was not a regional final and we didn't deserve to win that day anyway. Even before the two missed three throws. Mason -- never should have been a game decided by Denham's 3 rimming out in OT. The loss to Duke would be the one I change (assuming no butterfly effect), even though we probably wouldn't have beaten UNLV in the Final Four. Tate didn't even need to stay in bounds. He just needed to gain possession before landing out of bounds and flipped the ball down court.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

2006 George Mason is the only correct answer.

I disagree here. That team (save a couple of instances from a couple of players who didn't see enough court time) wasn't willing to put the effort in. Not only did they deserve what they got, it would be a complete disservice to all of the quality JC and Dan Hurley teams that worked their collective backsides off only to fall short if a gift like this was given to that squad.

 

[aburks41]

18-1.

Or the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma. We win that game, does the ACC take us instead of Louisville? Big 10 instead of Rutgers?

 

[gsmooth]

UConn over NMSU. Teddy Allen. We should have won that game and that team was special. Hated to see RJ Cole end his career like that. I truly think that if we win that game we could have gone far.

No, no, no. Losing that game made Hurley introspective and change his ways of always having a team grind out wins with good-very good defense (not excellent though) and mediocre offense. That meant as long as the opposition played good enough defense and got hot for a little bit offensively or had one player get hot offensively, they would win and UConn/Rhode Island would lose.

Now UConn is excellent on offense and runs very high level offense and their defense has gotten better to a level we can say is excellent.

I say, leave that loss to NMSU.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

No, no, no. Losing that game made Hurley introspective and change his ways of always having a team grind out wins with good-very good defense (not excellent though) and mediocre offense. That meant as long as the opposition played good enough defense and got hot for a little bit offensively or had one player get hot offensively, they would win and UConn/Rhode Island would lose.

Now UConn is excellent on offense and runs very high level offense and their defense has gotten better to a level we can say is excellent.

I say, leave that loss to NMSU.

This.

And another poster was absolutely correct in not wanting to change anything for basketball. What we currently have in men's basketball is the result of every step we've taken along the way. Changing one misstep could have prevented up from taking a later step that was necessary to get us where we are.

 

[NCHusky91]

1990 all the way. I was at the wake at Gampel after they returned from Jersey, it sucked. And then a long 9 years until they made it.

The 1994 team ran out of gas long before the Florida game. They lost to the stink in the BE semis and struggled with Rider (?!?) and Satan’s GW team before Donyell’s alleged South Beach antics.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Duke 1990 was 1000 times worse for me. I still hate Duke to this day because of that game.

I would stop have nightmares where I’m yelling at Tate to just bat the ball in the back court and let the clock keep running
Howrver:
As a geneoligist you understand changing any outcome could have consequences well beyond your imagination.
Our very existence is predicated on unchanging event.
So I’m content with the revenge of 1999 and the irony of a Hurley as our coach for two more. So the greater good may be a direct result of that loss.

 

[uconnbill]

Not changing any game results. I got 6 men's bb and 4 World Series titles since 1999. The journey was perfect.

My alternative history for college:

Mark Emmert drinks bad moonshine at LSU's title celebration in 2003; becomes even more of a drooling idiot than he already was; and never gets the NCAA job.

For the pros:

Saint Derek Jeter's rampant PED abuse is finally made public right before his HOF eligibility, causing massive cognitive dissonance among Yankee fans who are certain that David Ortiz was on the juice.

Oh well.

yeah when we all know Big Papi used steroids but it was ignored by the media

 

[uconnbill]

UConn's win against Oklahoma propels them into the ACC which raises the football and gives basketball continued time playing and beat Syracuse, Pitt, and other ACC teams

 

[Tenspro2002]

Great prompt. I'll go Gordon Haywards shot banking in to beat Duke in the 2010 championship

Good answer good answer.

Wisconsin over Duke in 2015 would have made that team legendary.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Sox and Giant fan?? Odd combo

I am one and may be the only one I know.

In high school in the early 00s there were tons of Sox/Pats, some Yanks/Giants, and a sickening number of Yanks/Pats frontrunners, but I was alone as the opposite.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

I am one and may be the only one I know.

In high school in the early 00s there were tons of Sox/Pats, some Yanks/Giants, and a sickening number of Yanks/Pats frontrunners, but I was alone as the opposite.

I’m Yanks/Pats but I’m also old enough to have put in my time watching some truly awful teams in the 80’s and early 90’s.

 

[Gurleyman]

In a bubble, the answer is 1990. That was as much heartbreak as I’ve ever had over sports because that team was so special. However, I have long contended that the 1999 title was the greatest sporting event ever because it had absolutely everything to make it memorable for a fan of a team:

1) Winning a title after much suffering
2) Beating a team you hated for revenge
3) Winning as a huge underdog when nobody gave you a shot
4) The outcome wasn’t decided until the horn
5) The game was considered a classic

1 and 2 would have been a lot different had that 1990 game not happened. Try and come up with another sporting event like 77-74: Red Sox/Yanks in 2004 (for Boston) and Miracle on Ice weren’t championships.

I might go Maryland in 2002 so that Caron got a Final Four with that second half. I don’t know if the butterfly effect would carry over into the 2004 title all that much. Or maybe the South Carolina women's title game, so we would be a combined 18-0 in national championships instead of 17-1. Ridiculous stat either way.

 

[GemParty]

Great selection of games to highlight!

Will need to book some studio time to Podcast!

 

[Mr. French]

I’m Yanks/Pats but I’m also old enough to have put in my time watching some truly awful teams in the 80’s and early 90’s.

Any combination of any of those teams is despicable. There’s no acceptable combination.

 

[The Yakk]

yeah when we all know Big Papi used steroids but it was ignored by the media

LOL called it!

I bet you're certain Jeter was clean, too. Man, that could have been beautiful.

Oh well, maybe in another universe where Derek's/Peyton's HGH doctor is not as scrupulous about their privacy.

 

[temery]

yeah when we all know Big Papi used steroids but it was ignored by the media

It's pretty safe to say most pro players have used PEDs.

 

[uconngb]

Me too. Not odd when you were born and raised in Connecticut. Plus the Patriots became a team much later than the Giants. There are still elderly football fans in the Boston area who root for the Giants.

I was born and raised in CT. It was pretty basic. You were either a NY fan or a Boston fan. None of this crossover BS.

 

[HooperScooper]

I was born and raised in CT. It was pretty basic. You were either a NY fan or a Boston fan. None of this crossover BS.

One of my friends grew up in Bristol and is a Yankees, Giants, Celtics and Bruins fan. I think there are a lot of crossover fans.

 

[AllHusky]

No original thoughts here, the Fiesta Bowl gets my vote

 

[87Xfer]

Patriots win 2011 SB and finish the season unbeaten

This or the helmet catch would be my pro sports choices. Unless I could undo Senna at Imola in 1994, then that above all else.

 

[87Xfer]

I was born and raised in CT. It was pretty basic. You were either a NY fan or a Boston fan. None of this crossover BS.

Nope. I somehow grew up a Patriots and Mets fan

 

[HCCForever]

'People forget the score was tied. Had Buckner made the out it would have gone to the 11th.

And it was the sixth game anyway. The Sox could have won game seven and Buckner’s error would be afterthought.

I wouldn’t change the history of 86. This loss to the Mets never bothered me as much as losing to Dent or Boone. 2004 was special in the win over Yankees and then St Louis who they lost to in 67.

 

[August_West]

If I could go back in time I’d outlaw podcasting.

 

[temery]

End Jack Tatum's career before he ends Darryl Stingley's.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Too many to pick, but since I am on this board: If we had won the Fiesta Bowl.....

Or the blatant robberies known as the Immaculate Deception or the * uck Rule Game

 

[CONN78SEJ]

I was born and raised in CT. It was pretty basic. You were either a NY fan or a Boston fan. None of this crossover BS.

The Giants have roots in Fairfield CT too. I met Frank Gifford and Rosey Grier as a 7 year old in 1962 at Fairfield University. Others in my family met many of the Giants team, because my mom’s side of the family owned Rawley’s Drive In on the Post Rd, which was 5 minutes away from the practice fields, and that’s where many of the Giants went to eat. My brother worked there as a teenager taking orders. Lol