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Cherry picking

willie99

willie99

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Winning a title is not easy, and it's not even predictable sometimes

2014; We were blown out by Rick Pitino's Louisville squad in the AAC title game, the 3rd time they blew us out that year. We were a 7 seed, looked like we were losing the first game, and then beat UK in the championship game after UK beat Louisville for the 2nd time that season earlier in the tournament.

2011; We were squarely on the bubble heading into the BET. If we lost our first game, I think we miss the tournament. 5 games in 5 nights later, we were a 3 seed and won the NC. We had Kemba, but I'm not sure anyone saw that coming

2023; we lost to Marquette in the BET Final. We were a 4 seed, and we had a coach that couldn't win a close game and couldn't win a tournament game. We were one of the bracket busting favorites to be upset by Rick Pitino's Iona squad in the 1st round. And then......

2004; Jim Calhoun was awarded the "Uncoach of the Year" by Doug-Got-Nothing. We stumbled at the end, Meka had a bad back. A 2 seed that ended Duke's dreams and destroyed Georgia Tech in the finals, the same Yellowjacket team that destroyed us in November in MSG

1999; A powerful 1 seed that broke Dookie's hearts

2024; our best ever, the only people that didn't think we'd win the title were metrics guys ☺️


I'm not predicting a title, I can't this Sunday morning, but I do believe we're in the mix and it's not like we haven't overcome the odds before

LET'S GO HUSKIES
 
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(in chant voice) More of this! More of this!

Joining Welcome Home GIF
 
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willie99 said:
Winning a title is not easy, and it's not even predictable sometimes

2014; We were blown out by Rick Pitino's Louisville squad in the AAC title game, the 3rd time they blew us out that year. We were a 7 seed, looked like we were losing the first game, and then beat UK in the championship game after UK beat Louisville for the 2nd time that season earlier in the tournament.

2011; We were squarely on the bubble heading into the BET. If we lost our first game, I think we miss the tournament. 5 games in 5 nights later, we were a 3 seed and won the NC. We had Kemba, but I'm not sure anyone saw that coming

2023; we lost to Marquette in the BET Final. We were a 4 seed, and we had a coach that couldn't win a close game and couldn't win a tournament game. We were one of the bracket busting favorites to be upset by Rick Pitino's Iona squad in the 1st round. And then......

2004; Jim Calhoun was awarded the "Uncoach of the Year" by Doug-Got-Nothing. We stumbled at the end, Meka had a bad back. A 2 seed that ended Duke's dreams and destroyed Georgia Tech in the finals, the same Yellowjacket team that destroyed us in November in MSG

1999; A powerful 1 seed that broke Dookie's hearts

2024; our best ever, the only people that didn't think we'd win the title were metrics guys ☺️


I'm not predicting a title, I can't this Sunday morning, but I do believe we're in the mix and it's not like we haven't overcome the odds before

LET'S GO HUSKIES
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You're way off on 2011. We were never a bubble team in 2011, we were never anywhere near the bubble. We were ranked #21 in the country the day the Big East tournament started and we had wins over #2 Michigan State, #8 Kentucky, #7 Villanova, #9 Georgetown, and #12 Texas. At the time the Big East was considered the best conference in college basketball history that season.
 
willie99 said:
2024; our best ever, the only people that didn't think we'd win the title were metrics guys ☺️
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This is why I'll never place more than a nominal amount of value in metrics.

From the time metrics became as detailed and as ubiquitous as they are today (I believe nearly twenty years) there hasn't been a team that could match our 2024 tournament squad. That the metrics don't support this conclusion is evidence of their flaws.
 
RashadRay11 said:
I am amused by how upset whiners get when their whining is pointed out.
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He wasn't whining he was pointing out a fact. The 2011 team was never on the bubble, despite the struggles in Big East play.

I agree with the sentiment of the OP, but he was in fact wrong on that point specifically
 
RashadRay11 said:
Wrong. And he’s been whining on every other thread for weeks
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You understand AI is wrong all the time right? They weren't considered a "lock" towards the end of Big East play but we're still firmly in the field. I remember the season very well, it was my senior year in high school. You honestly think they went from being on the 10/11 cut line to being a 3 seed because of 5 games? Lol.

If he's whining in other threads, call him out on those posts. My point was nothing he said in his post could be looked at as whining.
 
There has been quite a bit of revisionist history on where we sat in terms of firmly in or on the bubble prior to the BET in 2011, but we entered the NCAA tournament as a three seed. There is no way the BET run, regardless of how impressive it was, could have moved us from double digit seed or out to a three seed.
 
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I maybe was overly pessimistic, but I remember feeling like we had better beat DePaul to be sure we got in. The early season win over Michigan State wasn't all that great by the end of the year (they were ranked No. 2 in the nation when we beat them, but they ended up a 10 seed). Kentucky and at Texas held up pretty well, but we had a lot of losses late in the year. It was also the first year of the First Four (VCU went from First Four to Final Four), so that made me a little more comfortable ... but obviously ended up never having to worry about it.

Those 5 games in the BET included four wins over ranked teams, including 1 seed Pitt (and 3 Syracuse, 4 Louisville and 6 Georgetown), so it did raise our profile quite a bit. No way to prove it, but I think the Pitt win took us off the 8/9 line to about a 6, and then the next two wins got us up to a 3.
 
It's a long season, some games we're going to lose because of this or that. Let's not forget that we just smoked St. John's two weeks ago, and that this game here we pretty much played them even after falling behind in the first five minutes, and to their credit St. John's never allowed us to get back in it. St. John's is a very good team and should have a good tournament run.

UConn has a very good team, and we just watched Tarris Reed have the best interior offensive game of his career, and much of that because of our team offense and players making great passes to get him the ball. This bodes really well for us in the tourney. We can beat anybody and we should run deeeeeep into this tournament with as good a shot to win it all as any other top tier team. Go Huskies #7
 
RashadRay11 said:
Wrong. And he’s been whining on every other thread for weeks
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They weren’t a bubble team they just had a rough patch - you think they went bubble to 3 seed?

They probably were a 6/7 seed if they lost early BET, probably a 4/5 with a couple wins. Them going on that run got them a 3.
 
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superjohn said:
This RashadRay poster provides serious comic relief. UConn was about a 6 seed in 2011 before the Big East tournament started.
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As much as I remember it the same way as @RashadRay11 - they needed the win against Depaul to avoid a losing conf record and sweating on Sunday, @superjohn (and others) are correct. Here is a Bracketology from March 8, 2011 - the day the BE tourney started showing us as a 5 seed and no change from previous week.

www.sbnation.com

Bracketology 2011: NCAA Tournament Field Shifts Following Mid-Major Championships

Come fan with us. SB Nation is the largest independent sports media brand, consisting of SBNation.com, MMAFighting.com and over 300 fan-centric team communities.
www.sbnation.com www.sbnation.com
 
Marbles90 said:
As much as I remember it the same way as @RashadRay11 - they needed the win against Depaul to avoid a losing conf record and sweating on Sunday, @superjohn (and others) are correct. Here is a Bracketology from March 8, 2011 - the day the BE tourney started showing us as a 5 seed and no change from previous week.

www.sbnation.com

Bracketology 2011: NCAA Tournament Field Shifts Following Mid-Major Championships

Come fan with us. SB Nation is the largest independent sports media brand, consisting of SBNation.com, MMAFighting.com and over 300 fan-centric team communities.
www.sbnation.com www.sbnation.com
Expand ...
Fair! If im wrong, I am wrong. Not too proud or angry to admit defeat. Happy I made some laugh
 
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