For a good time check out these UK threads...

[CTGoonie]

over at Cats Illustrated.
Minus our games vs UConn, imagine where Cal would have this program

Which team is the biggest threat to stop our Cats from winning #9?

It's the offseason and I was bored but there are some insane/delusional UK fans out there.

EDIT: I forgot links to TOS don't work here.

 

[alexd]

"minus our games vs. UCONN"....

I think I'll watch national championship #4 again tonight.

 

[NJHusky]

over at Cats Illustrated.
Minus our games vs UConn, imagine where Cal would have this program

EDIT: I forgot links to TOS don't work here.[/QUOTE

I guess there should be a similar thread on the dook board too

 

[Kitaman]

How come we never had a thread, minus our:

George Mason,
Tate George near steal/ Laetner shot
Tyus Edney end to end layup
Donyell missed free throws

(I'm missing a few, and I'm not even talking about untimely injuries)

where we would be? Nice being on top and happy as a pig in sh|t in spite of the above.

 

[azescobar]

That board is pretty amusing - particularly the "minus our game v. UConn thread." This one might be my favorite post:

Originally posted by dckala2:
i hate uconn. And all seven of their fans.

---------
I'm pretty sure more than 7 UConn fans showed up to the 2011 Final Four and 2014 Championship game. It's pretty fun being UK's most hated opponent.

 

[phillionaire]

i'd rather have 2 flukey titles than not have won any

 

[Strummer]

. . . there are some insane/delusional UK fans out there.

"I agree. Wow. Just Wow." - BY poster who believes we have a 50% chance of repeating.
"Inconceivable." - BY poster who believes Boatright may be a lottery pick.
"They're nuts over there." - BY poster who believes Nolan may go pro early.

 

[August_West]

i'd rather have 2 flukey titles than not have won any

Is it a fluke if it happens repeatedly? Or is it just that the "Uconn way" is better than all the other pretenders? Any team can fluke their way to a title, why does only uconn actually do it?

 

[UCONN-NYC]

How come we never had a thread, minus our:

George Mason,
Tate George near steal/ Laetner shot
Tyus Edney end to end layup
Donyell missed free throws

(I'm missing a few, and I'm not even talking about untimely injuries)

where we would be? Nice being on top and happy as a pig in sh|t in spite of the above.

*Dyson Injury 2009(Final Four Run not withstanding)

 

[Walker11]

That board is pretty amusing - particularly the "minus our game v. UConn thread." This one might be my favorite post:

Originally posted by dckala2:
i hate uconn. And all seven of their fans.

---------
I'm pretty sure more than 7 UConn fans showed up to the 2011 Final Four and 2014 Championship game. It's pretty fun being UK's most hated opponent.

Its very fun that we have owned our 2 most hated programs on the biggest of stages. It would be a sad world if Duke had 6 titles and UK had 10, especially with Calipari at the helm cutting down the nets 3 times in 4 years.

 

[Strummer]

Some choice quotes:

Not exactly sure on the particular seasons, but UConn has denied Duke a couple of times as well. I know I've heard Duke fans bitching about UConn in a similar fashion as UK fans are. I'm wanting to say the 1999 and 2004 tournaments is when UConn knocked Duke out. That 1999 Duke team was really good.

UCONN=Kryptonite

People keep acting like we're dealing with the old Coach K. Duke has been past the Sweet 16 only twice in the last 10 seasons.

Which team is the biggest threat to stop our Cats from winning #9?Reply

UConn.

UConn. For whatever reason, that team has had our number for awhile now.

"UConn's tourney success is part fluke," I couldn't disagree more. UConn's tournament success before was because they had maybe the most underrated coach ever. Were they the best teams in their 2 most recent title runs? No, but they came together and got hot at the end and had fantastic coaching to lead them there. Last year their toughest tournament game was the first one against St. Bonaventure. I'd say their "luckiest" break was Georges Niang getting hurt for Iowa State.

I don't know. They have a mixed bag of "gets it" and "clueless." Like here.
In any event, many of their posters have given us the props we deserve.

Damn.

It's good to be king.

 

[UConNick]

Who gives a rats behind if they were "flukes". We have two banners in the last few years that they don't. It doesn't matter how it happened; all that matters is that it happened.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Is it a fluke if it happens repeatedly? Or is it just that the "Uconn way" is better than all the other pretenders? Any team can fluke their way to a title, why does only uconn actually do it?

The fluke part comes form UConn getting two championships without flashy teams. Casual observers will generally mistake great defense and doing the little things right (ie. our FT shooting this year) with luck. That being said, a lot of the posters over there were giving UConn credit for the titles and not ignorantly writing it off as pure luck.

 

[upstater]

The fluke part comes form UConn getting two championships without flashy teams. Casual observers will generally mistake great defense and doing the little things right (ie. our FT shooting this year) with luck. That being said, a lot of the posters over there were giving UConn credit for the titles and not ignorantly writing it off as pure luck.

That guy also left off the Final 4 in 2009 from his consideration.

 

[Fishy]

Just started a new thread on a Minnesota Vikings website....

Where would Bud Grant have this team if it weren't for the Chiefs, Steelers, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Packers, Cowboys and Bears?

 

[CAHUSKY]

That board is pretty amusing - particularly the "minus our game v. UConn thread." This one might be my favorite post:

Originally posted by dckala2:
i hate uconn. And all seven of their fans.

---------
I'm pretty sure more than 7 UConn fans showed up to the 2011 Final Four and 2014 Championship game. It's pretty fun being UK's most hated opponent.

As someone who has attended the UCONN v. KY games in Maui, Houston and Dallas I can confirm that compared to KY our fan base is miniscule. Those crazy bastards travel in spectacularly ginormous fashion.

 

[Chuck]

Kentucky... the Buffalo Bills of college basketball.

 

[Kembacity]

Come on it's easy for teams on the receiving end of our amazing runs to call them flukes, it really means "improbable runs"

 

[Rocktheworld]

I honestly don't get how even 2011 was considered a fluke. Yeah we had a bad February, but we spent a lot of the year in the top 10, and almost all of the year ranked. Then on top of that, how could you say it was fluky that a team that won 5 games in 5 days in the nation's best conference's tournament won the whole damn thing next? And finally, for JC, three times is a trend, not a fluke.

 

[Gurleyman]

Come on it's easy for teams on the receiving end of our amazing runs to call them flukes, it really means "improbable runs"

We were also seeded higher than Kentucky both times we beat them (3 vs 4 in 2011, 7 vs 8 in 2014). We could probably explain that there's a reason they are wearing blue in all their losses to us instead of white, but maybe they haven't figured out that the higher seed wears white.

Also sort of funny this past year - if you are a Kentucky fan and you watched the way we totally crushed Florida (after our slow start), you should know what we weren't just some flukey team on a magic carpet ride. In 2011, you didn't even need the transitive property of SEC opponents, they were the first hand recipient of a boot to the ass from us in Maui.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Fluke is the national spin on UConn's success. Whether these folks have short memories or are teenagers, UConn Men's basketball is being distilled into mostly a couple quirky runs and volatile seasons as a means of downplaying where we stand among the bluebloods.

Forget that we have been to the elite 8 50% of the time over the last 16 years.

Let's break down the other 8 seasons:

2000 - Underachieving KEA/Mouring team that was a 5 seed and lost to Tennessee in the 2nd round. Certainly not a terrible year for our first NC hangover. Mostly the Deng whiff here.
2001 - Rebuilding year - 20 win team with a freshman pg Taliek and a Freshman Caron, Sophmore Tony Rob Most of our scoring from Senior Mouring and Johnny Time Juco year 1 - This team would lose to eventual NC UMD on Steve Blake's dagger the following year. One of our lowest seasons of the 8 non elite appearances.
2003 - 23 win team with two key freshman pieces (EO and BG) makes it to the sweet 16 and loses to #1 seed TJ Ford's Texas 80 miles from campus.
2005 - 23 win 2 Seed get's Julius Hodge'd mostly because of a young Marcus Williams handling the ball and a occasionally interested Rudy Gay.
2007 - Freshman Thabeet, Post laptop/Medical issues Price at the point, Freshman Dyson, Sophmore Adrien, Freshman Wiggins, No clear roles, probably our worst year of the 8.
2008 - Thabeet develops, Adrien becomes a monster and a 24 win 4 seeded team with 5 averaging in doubles and a real threat to make a run is squandered when Price's knee buckles around halftime against the Torreros.
2010 - Gavin, Stanley and Jerome watch the last 2nd half of the season from the Bench. 18 wins.
2012- 20 win team cant sort out AO's sulking, JC's leave of absence, Bazz's growing pains and asks too much of too many freshman. Iowa State punks us in the first round.
2013 - Tournament team banned. Who knows? But we were limping to the finish line. Still had enough to beat providence. If this team stays healthy I think it wins 23 games easy and gets a low middle seed.

So since 1998 we've had by my count 3 lousy seasons - 2001, 2007 and 2010.

We had tournament teams the other 5 years. 1 of those tournament teams got knocked out in the sweet 16 by a 1 seed in a road game. 1 of those lost their star point guard in the first round. 2 of the teams probably were lucky just to make the tourney (00 and 12). The '05 team underachieved and the '13 team never got a chance.

I'd like to take a closer look at the resumes of the "more consistent" programs over this time.

 

[Gurleyman]

I honestly don't get how even 2011 was considered a fluke. Yeah we had a bad February, but we spent a lot of the year in the top 10, and almost all of the year ranked. Then on top of that, how could you say it was fluky that a team that won 5 games in 5 days in the nation's best conference's tournament won the whole damn thing next? And finally, for JC, three times is a trend, not a fluke.

The fluke that year was that we went 9-9 in conference. Whether it was the freshman wall, Kemba getting beat up, us just not playing well, etc., we played below our abilities in the grind of league play. The long haul of the entire season proved that.

In tourney play, we were 14-0, with only two of those 14 opponents soft wins (DePaul, Bucknell). And Bucknell was a trendy upset pick, with the "UConn is tired" logic. Put a trophy at stake, and we were bringing the hurt.

 

[alexd]

Fluke is the national spin on UConn's success. Whether these folks have short memories or are teenagers, UConn Men's basketball is being distilled into mostly a couple quirky runs and volatile seasons as a means of downplaying where we stand among the bluebloods.

Forget that we have been to the elite 8 50% of the time over the last 16 years.

Let's break down the other 8 seasons:

2000 - Underachieving KEA/Mouring team that was a 5 seed and lost to Tennessee in the 2nd round. Certainly not a terrible year for our first NC hangover. Mostly the Deng whiff here.
2001 - Rebuilding year - 20 win team with a freshman pg Taliek and a Freshman Caron, Sophmore Tony Rob Most of our scoring from Senior Mouring and Johnny Time Juco year 1 - This team would lose to eventual NC UMD on Steve Blake's dagger the following year. One of our lowest seasons of the 8 non elite appearances.
2003 - 23 win team with two key freshman pieces (EO and BG) makes it to the sweet 16 and loses to #1 seed TJ Ford's Texas 80 miles from campus.
2005 - 23 win 2 Seed get's Julius Hodge'd mostly because of a young Marcus Williams handling the ball and a occasionally interested Rudy Gay.
2007 - Freshman Thabeet, Post laptop/Medical issues Price at the point, Freshman Dyson, Sophmore Adrien, Freshman Wiggins, No clear roles, probably our worst year of the 8.
2008 - Thabeet develops, Adrien becomes a monster and a 24 win 4 seeded team with 5 averaging in doubles and a real threat to make a run is squandered when Price's knee buckles around halftime against the Torreros.
2010 - Gavin, Stanley and Jerome watch the last 2nd half of the season from the Bench. 18 wins.
2012- 20 win team cant sort out AO's sulking, JC's leave of absence, Bazz's growing pains and asks too much of too many freshman. Iowa State punks us in the first round.
2013 - Tournament team banned. Who knows? But we were limping to the finish line. Still had enough to beat providence. If this team stays healthy I think it wins 23 games easy and gets a low middle seed.

So since 1998 we've had by my count 3 lousy seasons - 2001, 2007 and 2010.

We had tournament teams the other 5 years. 1 of those tournament teams got knocked out in the sweet 16 by a 1 seed in a road game. 1 of those lost their star point guard in the first round. 2 of the teams probably were lucky just to make the tourney (00 and 12). The '05 team underachieved and the '13 team never got a chance.

I'd like to take a closer look at the resumes of the "more consistent" programs over this time.

If this was written from memory. I am totally impressed.

 

[OkaForPrez]

The fluke that year was that we went 9-9 in conference. Whether it was the freshman wall, Kemba getting beat up, us just not playing well, etc., we played below our abilities in the grind of league play. The long haul of the entire season proved that.

In tourney play, we were 14-0, with only two of those 14 opponents soft wins (DePaul, Bucknell). And Bucknell was a trendy upset pick, with the "UConn is tired" logic. Put a trophy at stake, and we were bringing the hurt.

2011 was 3 chunks.

First third - Nobody knows how to stop Kemba Walker.
2nd Third - Teams go to primarily a 2-3 zone and clog up the center of the floor to stop Kemba from Penetrating and forcing someone else to beat them.
Last Third - Jeremy Lamb starts to beat them, everything opens back up.

 

[OkaForPrez]

If this was written from memory. I am totally impressed.

Used basketball reference for the win totals but the lineups/commentary is all from memory.