last year's loss

[nyfanofwbb]

For goodness sake is anyone else tired of hearing and reading about last year's loss. I can only imagine what the players are thinking. I know it goes with the territory for the players and coaches and as always handle it with grace. Every time I click on a media link there is a question about last years loss to MS. And we will hear about until the last minute ticks off the clock this weekend. Talk about beating a dead horse!!
Rant over

 

[Sonny44]

For goodness sake is anyone else tired of hearing and reading about last year's loss. I can only imagine what the players are thinking. I know it goes with the territory for the players and coaches and as always handle it with grace. Every time I click on a media link there is a question about last years loss to MS. And we will hear about until the last minute ticks off the clock this weekend. Talk about beating a dead horse!!
Rant over

Listen here new yorker, up here in CT we take this game pretty seriously and we don't take kindly to losing!

 

[Roundball fan]

Kindly, I haven't watched the game again and probably never will. I can't stand to watch the replay of that shot. I want MS so we can put an end to all that crap. UConn is ready and we do bite. I hope to be yelling Gabby and all the girls names all game long. Geno will have them ready. Go UConn

 

[nyfanofwbb]

Listen here new yorker, up here in CT we take this game pretty seriously and we don't take kindly to losing!

Neither does this New Yorker that's why i'm tired of hearing about it. Just clicked on a media link with Kia and poor kid yet again explaining how they handled the loss last year. Go Huskies!!! Let's hope Kia has her bun stlye hair do!!

 

[meyers7]

For goodness sake is anyone else tired of hearing and reading about last year's loss. I can only imagine what the players are thinking. I know it goes with the territory for the players and coaches and as always handle it with grace. Every time I click on a media link there is a question about last years loss to MS. And we will hear about until the last minute ticks off the clock this weekend. Talk about beating a dead horse!!
Rant over

Well you know it happens so infrequently.

 

[CMC'72]

For goodness sake is anyone else tired of hearing and reading about last year's loss.

Fully agreed. Thanks for bringing that loss back up!

 

[PAHuskeyFan]

For goodness sake is anyone else tired of hearing and reading about last year's loss. I can only imagine what the players are thinking. I know it goes with the territory for the players and coaches and as always handle it with grace. Every time I click on a media link there is a question about last years loss to MS. And we will hear about until the last minute ticks off the clock this weekend. Talk about beating a dead horse!!
Rant over

If you recall, or have seen, during Lou's post game interview following the win over SC at the Regional, last year's game was brought up... she answered something like... "Yea, we're going to be hearing nothing else but that [last year's loss] the entire week..."
Personally, I'm sick of it... BUT, it could serve to be some additional MOTIVATION for our Team...as if they need that.

 

[Carnac]

If you recall, or have seen, during Lou's post game interview following the win over SC at the Regional, last year's game was brought up... she answered something like... "Yea, we're going to be hearing nothing else but that [last year's loss] the entire week..."
Personally, I'm sick of it... BUT, it could serve to be some additional MOTIVATION for our Team...as if they need that.

It's surprising what people can do when they are "motivated, or are extra motivated. Two things UConn will have going for them if they can get to the championship game:
1. Geno has never lost a championship game...........ever!!

2. THAT loss to MS state will be mentioned at least once by Geno in their pre-game meeting just before they take the floor. He will remind them of what happened, and that they are not invincible, they can lose just like they lost a year ago. No one has to go into detail or bring up certain plays. Except the freshmen, everyone else was there and had to endure that loss. They vividly remember the details and the shock and angst of losing and how they felt. “I don’t think we expect anything as far as, ‘We’re just going to get here,’” senior forward Gabby Williams, the most outstanding player of the Albany Region, said of returning to the Final Four. “We look at the game ahead of us. We’re not entitled to anything. We have to earn it.”

Take nothing for granted. He'll ask them to think back to what/how they felt after the game. A scenario they (nor the coaches) DO NOT want to repeat. The players must understand they can take nothing for granted going into these last two games. They MUST play like the champions the are EVERY play!!! NO PLAYS OFF!!! If you're tired, so are the opposing players, play through it. You've got the entire summer to rest. Somebody's going to be in tears after the game. It was UConn's turn last year. This year, it's somebody else's turn.

As UConn’s works toward trying to play great in Columbus, the usual March discussion about whether the Huskies’ dominance is good for women’s basketball continues to play out nationally.

“They're absolutely great for women's basketball,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “When Alabama [football] goes to play for a national championship, are you asking them if they're bad for the game because they beat the crap out of somebody 66-30 starting off the year? They sweep through the SEC, beating the tar out of everybody. … Should [Auriemma] just lose to make all of you happy or what? They've done a remarkable job. Give credit where credit is due".

“It's not bad for the game. Nobody was saying when John Wooden was winning 10 in a row that UCLA was bad for the men's game. … If anybody thinks they're bad for the game, stop watching the gym. Go try to watch a paddle board game or something, go watch checkers, because if you can't appreciate it, then, please don't even cover it.”

 

[Bigpetunia]

I have a diametrically opposite view: I kind of enjoy it. The constant repetition of that event and its outcome are the supreme testament to the unprecedented greatness of the UConn program. And, of course, it will fade rather quickly into memory once the Huskies complete the journey to #12 this weekend. A team only generates so much excitement over a loss if its achievements are off the charts. Sooner or later, there's going to be, horror, of horrors, another shocking loss, and we'll bear witness to the same scenario yet again...and then only because it will arrive so much later than sooner!

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

For goodness sake is anyone else tired of hearing and reading about last year's loss. I can only imagine what the players are thinking. I know it goes with the territory for the players and coaches and as always handle it with grace. Every time I click on a media link there is a question about last years loss to MS.

I have a diametrically opposite view: I kind of enjoy it. The constant repetition of that event and its outcome are the supreme testament to the unprecedented greatness of the UConn program. And, of course, it will fade rather quickly into memory once the Huskies complete the journey to #12 this weekend. A team only generates so much excitement over a loss if its achievements are off the charts. Sooner or later, there's going to be, horror, of horrors, another shocking loss, and we'll bear witness to the same scenario yet again...and then only because it will arrive so much later than sooner!

With all due respect, @nyfanofwbb , I understand that you may be tired of hearing/reading about the loss, but it was one of the four biggest upsets in the last 20 years of the women's NCAAT (1998 Harvard over Stanford, 1999 Duke over TN, 2013 Louisville over Baylor).

It was an overtime game. It ended on a last-second shot. And it ended UConn's record streak of 111 consecutive wins.

Imagine how the Kentucky fans feel about having to relive Christian Laettner's game-winning shot (from the 1992 East Regional Final) every March. It is replayed over and over again and has been for the last 26 years, as it was the greatest finish to one of the most amazing men's college basketball games ever played. Imagine every US Open seeing Serena Williams lose to Roberta Vinci, denying the GOAT's quest for the calendar-year Grand Slam.

UConn has achieved greatness and rarified air. All season, ESPN was posting articles about the win streak, with a running tracker of games. UConn's dominance was featured very prominently and discussed not just in women's basketball circles, but among the sports talk radio, talking heads shows, etc. It became a national sports issue, not just a women's basketball issue.

The winning streak was in another stratosphere, given how amazing it was. No team had ever won 4 titles until UConn did it, and UConn was in the Final Four going for a 5th title, until MS won on a last-second shot in overtime. That shot garnered a lot more attention to women's basketball, which can only grow the sport. And the fact that both MS State and UConn are back in the Final Four with the potential to meet for the championship in a rematch makes it even more of a story.

I think there is a difference between "beating a dead horse" and recognizing that when any athlete or team achieves greatness, if there is an upset or a loss, it only magnifies the initial achievement, recognizing it for the amazing accomplishment that it was and the Herculean effort it took to topple UConn (which, I believe, is @Bigpetunia 's point).

 

[my2cents]

The thing that I don't agree with is that it was one of the biggest "Upsets" ever. In the pros, championships teams come back intact.
We lost the top three picks in the WNBA draft. Before the season, it was pretty much a given that UCONN was in a "UCONN" version of a rebuilding year. Nobody , even Geno, thought they would be undefeated. To compare a national semi-final defeat to a #16 seed beating a number #1 seed in the opening round is really a stretch.
Such are the ridiculous expectations that when we don't win a NC its a bad year.

 

[IWearShoes]

The thing that I don't agree with is that it was one of the biggest "Upsets" ever. In the pros, championships teams come back intact.
We lost the top three picks in the WNBA draft. Before the season, it was pretty much a given that UCONN was in a "UCONN" version of a rebuilding year. Nobody , even Geno, thought they would be undefeated. To compare a national semi-final defeat to a #16 seed beating a number #1 seed in the opening round is really a stretch.
Such are the ridiculous expectations that when we don't win a NC its a bad year.

Losing by 60 the year before certainly played into the idea that a win was just impossible. All of us who watched that game know it could have been 80. It was painful to watch for a State fan who saw that team win a lot of games.

 

[Huskie78]

I REALLY hope things work out so that Geno's last words to the team pre-game Sunday go like this:

 

[Woof 101]

For goodness sake is anyone else tired of hearing and reading about last year's loss. I can only imagine what the players are thinking. I know it goes with the territory for the players and coaches and as always handle it with grace. Every time I click on a media link there is a question about last years loss to MS. And we will hear about until the last minute ticks off the clock this weekend. Talk about beating a dead horse!!
Rant over

No attack here nyfanofwbb. This does go into my book of things you can't make up though. Someone is tired of hearing and reading about last year's loss.
The solution? Start a thread about being tired of hearing and reading about last years loss. Kind of like beating that dead horse you mentioned....
If it's any consolation, you are not alone but most realize talking about a UConn loss is probably good for the game!

 

[Los24]

As I catchup on watching women's final 4 on YouTube, I see the shot again.... I gotta say It was a heck of a shot over a heck of a defender! I personally am won of those that want to face MSST, how could you not as a UConn fan? Over the past 3 - 4 seasons we are just not given the opportunity (thankfully) to face teams that have beaten us to see how the players respond.

I think the players think of it more than just a loss, but also as being a UConn team that failed to live up to the legacy. Not really a fair burden to carry.

 

[msugrad00]

If both MSU and UConn can take care of business tomorrow night the national championship game could be the highest rated women's college game in history. Everyone wants to see that rematch. I wouldn't be surprised if Big T dunks in that game and tares down the backboard ala Shaq back in the day....how awesome would that be