Most "memorable" losses or losses you will not be able to forget

[UCweCONN]

In no order of priority: 6 OT loss to Cuse at the Garden, Ray Allen losing to UCLA and Tyus Edney in the NCAA Tourney (I think that was the best UCONN team ever), Donyell Marshall missed free throws in NCAA Tourney, Rice from Miami hitting three pointer at Gampel to cap a miraculous comback.....and my sentimental favorite, Jeff King (RIP) in a tie game against Syracuse at the Civic Center (1987??) throwing a final UCONN possession inbounds pass from mid court away to Derrick Coleman who took it all the way for a game winning dunk. That was early in Calhoun's UCONN tenure when we were starting to beat people. That one hurt. At worst, we should've had a last shot or gone to OT.

 

[Travelman6]

I found this on youtube:



This was the first painful loss for me.

But it is amazing how quick Uconn was off a made basket from the other team (florida)...they wanted to run the ball down your throat.

 

[Waquoit]

Welcome to the best night of your life Da Meat Hook. We lost to da Meat Hook! That sucked bigtime.

 

[UConnNick]

The worst part of the ending of Dook '90 was that Tate didn't need to hold on to the ball to seal the game....it went off his hands and started rolling up the sideline and went out of bounds....if it had just rolled a little more to the left it would have continued rolling up the court and time would have run out. Game UConn. Final Four bound.

The mitigating factor regarding the '90 game is that if we had made it to the FF and made the final, UNLV would have destroyed us just like they destroyed the Blue Devils. We were spared that humiliation.

 

[UConnNick]

I think the despair was far greater two years later when we lost to Miss. St. Florida was manhandling us inside and exposed a clear weakness in our team's makeup (remember the "donut team" label?). '96 was much more of a team-wide gag job which really made you think that we may never get over the mountain, which was extra tough to swallow given that Scalitoing UMass made the Final Four that year.

But the Minutemen really didn't make the FF that year...VACATED! LOL

 

[UConnNick]

"Good" Losses:
Duke/Laettner... Pissed me off, but it was the start of great things
Maryland - The legend of Caron
UCLA - The legend of Ray
MSU - I did not think we played poorly so it always stuck with me as a loss in the final four. Nothing to be ashamed of there.
Cuse 6 OT - I'll be honest, I was just glad someone won. Tough to get really upset considering the effort involved.

"WTF" Losses:

George Mason... nuff said
Florida - Donyell had gone 20 for 20 from the line a week earlier.
Miss St. - This one, in particular, killed me b/c we played like such p****ies.

"Embarrassing" Losses:

PC in 2010 - They dunked on us about 200 times in the 2nd half. It was like a video game.
Kansas 05 - Huge billed CBS game between two top 5 teams and we were beaten by 30+
Nova 05 - See above. Kittles destroyed us; I think he dropped 36. I absolutely despised Jason Lawson.
Iowa State 2012 - Royce White dunked on us on the opening play; we were down 20 instantly.
Louisville 2014 - Absolutely throttled
San Diego 2008 - AJ went down and we just folded...
Miami - Darius Rice
St. John's under Mike Jarvis - To be honest, I do not even remember if we lost to them. But I despised Jarvis and his players seemed to take on his demeanor. Spartacus-ing Zendon Hamilton.

Speaking of Jarvis, how about the infamous "Bus Crash Game" when our team bus was involved in a bad wreck on the Mass Pike en route to the BU game. That SOB Jarvis wouldn't re-schedule the game because he hates Calhoun's guts for taking the Northeastern job right out from under him. We lost to freakin' BU.

 

[jayteeman]

1990 NCAA Tourney. Losing by one to Duke in OT off Tate's botched steal.

Easily the one that comes to mind first....we deserved to win that one....and certainly the most painful

 

[Husky25]

The reason I don't even rank '90 is that UConn was still pretty much in their Up-Start stage. Considering, "The Shot (and disregarding that UConn was up by double digits most of that game)," it sort of felt like they were playing with house money, so to speak.

 

[B1GEast]

2006 loss to George Mason will forever bother me.

Nothing else comes close.

 

[EBonz30]

The three top losses that stick out to me were all the regional finals losses between 1995-2006, so close to final four but so far, all were single digit losses with the largest deficit being 6 points;

1995- Uconn & UCLA Regional Final
2002- Uconn & Maryland Regional Final
2006- Uconn & George Mason Regional Final

 

[Deepster]

The 2002 loss to Maryland still sticks in my craw. I think Butler's 2nd half may be the best half of basketball ever by a Husky.

One that hasn't been named yet? 2001 home loss to Detroit in the NIT. Rashad Phillips was an Iverson clone who came in and punked a UConn team that just didn't want to be in the NIT. That drive home left a sour taste in my mouth. They didn't want to be there. I didn't either. And Detroit rubbed it in our face all night.

 

[Husky1]

George Mason Loss without a doubt. I was coaching in an AAU tournament and got back to my hotel room to watch the game thinking that there was absolutely no way we were going to lose (who is George Mason?). Just remember being in total shock during and after the game. One of the worst games I was at was I think in 1979 or 1980 being at Carrier Dome. A player had given me tix that were in first few rows and it was just amazing. I think we were up for much of the game, but ended up losing in a relatively close game. I was there with thy dad who was a Syracuse fan and it sucked

 

[HuskyFich]

I dont think the 6OT game is really that bad. It would have been 10x worse if "he who shall not be named" actually nailed the buzzer beater and celebrated on top of the table legitimately.

But, we shouldn't be too bitter...

Atlanta blew a 28-3 lead

 

[Excalibur]

I'm going to guess that anyone naming George Mason is under 35 and has little idea of what it felt like to think we might never actually get to the Final Four.