Probably our worst loss in the Dance | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Probably our worst loss in the Dance

Durks07 said:
We had 4 other first round draft picks playing that game. Losing to a double digit seed mid major was still worse than losing tonight in a game where Vegas made you a 3.5 point favorite.
Expand ...
Thabeet was - but nobody else. Adrien and Dyson did make it to the league (Adrien for a few years, Dyson for a cup of coffee) - Sticks never did.
 
brasssbonanzaa said:
ding ding ding.

Our 2012 team was infinitely more talented than this one. They just didn't give a crap. They had Napier, Lamb, and Drummond...and lost to Iowa State.
Expand ...
Don’t forget ao scoe boat gift Deandre
 
Gurleyman said:
It was a lot worse loss than today, no doubt. I just don’t rank it highly on the ones I’ve lamented over the years. We were down our projected starting 2 and 3 to life threatening illnesses (the RA who played not being the same, and AJ was going to step into the Ben Gordon 2 guard role from day one). I was personally over that loss about 2 minutes after the game ended. Just one of those years where too many things went wrong. I remember Steve bleeping Blake, the ball getting stuck in the rim at Texas and George bleeping Mason a lot more when i think of the frustrations of that era around the first two titles. But obviously others experience may vary

Iowa State was awful, but so bad that I don’t waste any time thinking about it. Same with Kansas - thought we’d give them a better fight but oh well. Michigan State doesn’t bug me too much - I just wished we stayed solid after Sticks dunk cut it to three instead of allowing a breakaway dunk with a “chicken with heads cut off“ press. We had it down to 3 with a minute left and didn’t give ourselves a chance to keep the pressure on. San Diego I chalked up to the AJ injury and knowing we wouldn’t go very far without him.

Pre-1999 they all sucked and I don’t want to remember any of them ever again.
Expand ...
Fair enough. You are comparing this loss literally minutes after it happened. This team would have gotten destroyed by the 2005 UConn team. And yet both lost to a 10 seed. I won’t remember this loss except for the fact that it will be a jumping off point for the success ahead. The talent level is still on the rise. We are climbing back up the mountain.
 
.-.
All those losses were bad....this one was just plain embarrassing, 63 other teams in this tournament would have beaten us tonight.
 
Vuce said:
Fair enough. You are comparing this loss literally minutes after it happened. This team would have gotten destroyed by the 2005 UConn team. And yet both lost to a 10 seed. I won’t remember this loss except for the fact that it will be a jumping off point for the success ahead. The talent level is still on the rise. We are climbing back up the mountain.
Expand ...
I may have been more forgiving since we had just won in ‘04. And maybe if that NC State loss was in the Sweet 16 or EE, I might have gotten caught up in visions of a repeat and feeling like we missed a great opportunity. Repeat chances don’t come along often, and we haven’t come close in any of four opportunities.

The ball stuck in the rim in Texas was also a little easier to get over since I felt like we’d be better the next year, and I probably had some of those same thoughts in 2005 - thinking everyone was returning and we’d add AJ. Of course, then the laptops thing happened, and I don’t think AJ would have played anyway. It was 2008 before he looked like the player we expected (not sure if CV turning pro was a surprise at the time - I remember it being really surprising he went so high in the lottery, but I forget if conventional wisdom was that he was leaving).
 
Vuce said:
That year was worse. 5 NBA players on our roster and an all time great Hall of Fame coach AND essentially playing a home game in Worcester, MA. Losing to an NC State team that lost 14 games and was under .500 in the ACC. Horrible loss. Everyone was healthy when we played that game
Expand ...
If memory serves me correct our backup point guard was suspended by Calhoun before the game. I will have double check my memory.
 
Tdaley said:
If memory serves me correct our backup point guard was suspended by Calhoun before the game. I will have double check my memory.
Expand ...
Maybe there was a suspension but Marcus Williams was one of the few that had a good game. UConn didn’t lose to a cruddy 10 seed playing in our backyard because a backup PG wasn’t available. Other players on that roster included Rudy Gay, Villaneuva, Hilton, Boone, Denham Brown, rashad Anderson. Loaded
 
.-.
This may not be the worse loss but certainly it’s just about the worst we have played in a NCAA tournament game offensively. That 4 point play given up on that Whaley foul felt like a 10 point play in this game and really provided the separation needed to offset our rebounding advantage.

Honestly with an average offensive game we win this game easily. With our C game we win. This was a D to D+ performance. It was painful to watch them botch every opportunity in this game.

Hurley is a good coach but he was out coached a bit in this one. The moment as too big for us as it was in the Big East tournament.

We will grow from this. There are no skipping steps unless you pull in a top 3 class with lottery talent prospects. We are on our way.
 
Vuce said:
Maybe there was a suspension but Marcus Williams was one of the few that had a good game. UConn didn’t lose to a cruddy 10 seed playing in our backyard because a backup PG wasn’t available. Other players on that roster included Rudy Gay, Villaneuva, Hilton, Boone, Denham Brown, rashad Anderson. Loaded
Expand ...
The problem was Marcus Williams had to play almost the entire game. Calhoun tried to play a walk on to give Marcus a breather which did not turn out all that well. Marcus's defense was never a strength of his game and playing the entire game didn't help. Of course, I do agree with you that Uconn still should have won the game and the loss was one of the most disappointing loss in Uconn's history.
 
Excalibur said:
But in terms of under-performing it’s talent level? By far the biggest disappointment.
Expand ...
Not even close.

96?
06?
94?

Those 3 are much worse, relative to talent.
 
2012 Iowa State was way worse than this
  • Coming off a National Championship
  • Preseason top 5
  • Two NBA lotto picks in Drummond / Lamb
  • Another NBA draft pick in Shabazz
  • Add in Boat & Oriakhi
  • Barely competitive in the 8/9 game getting it down to 6 and then it was gone, outrebounded 41-24
  • It was known going into the game they could (and ultimately were) be banned from 2013 postseason
They fought back today to get it down 4 before a calamity of errors at the foul line and in transition, after missing the tournament for 5 years, and after navigating three COVID pauses and having to be put in quarantine for the last 5 months. They should of won today, but there's a least a bigger picture and positive trajectory to this.
 
After the games of Alabama, Texas, Ohio State, UVA, do fans still think the performance was “horrible”?
 
billybud said:
After the games of Alabama, Texas, Ohio State, UVA, do fans still think the performance was “horrible”?
Expand ...
It was a horrible performance. Those other programs also had horrible games and they played much lesser teams than Maryland. Some of us are saying that big picture we are still on the rise from the depths of 2018 and it’s going to get better and more fun. Others want Hurley fired now and don’t like how he interacts with the officials and that he does a podcast 😂
 
.-.
Skiblets said:
Got out toughed. That never used to happen
Expand ...
Got out toughed but that used to happen in the mid 90s. Had Ricky Moore not gotten hurt in 96 the team may have advanced far. Thank goodness for KEA for guiding UCONN to the promise land.
 
Hurley needs to reach out to Geno and Jim and get advice on how to mentally prepare a team for the tournament. I hope he doesn't have the fatal pride flaw that Ollie had.
 
TortillaMonster said:
Many mentioned already were worse, but Tennessee in 2000 felt similarly underwhelming
Expand ...

That Tenn game isn't getting enough love in this thread. Yes, Khalid's injury hurt a ton, but that team had a lot of veterans who'd been through a Natty run and we folded like a cheap suit against a typical chucklehead Tenn squad. Awful, awful game to watch.
 
Someone mentioned this already, but I totally forgot about Florida game in 1994. That was a rough one as well. That was the first and only time I'd see my dad belligerent after a game.
 
The 2012 game with JC ballistic on the sidelines in his last game for us a real letdown. The 94 Florida Donyell game and the Miss St loss in Ray Allens last game were teams that could have won the title and then there is the end of the Dream season on a fumbled ball out of bounds. This years team had no shot to win a title but should have played better.
 
Jay-Bone said:
I kind've agree. I still have ptsd over it. After what was expected from that team.
Expand ...
Hey, this is a first, and please don't take it the wrong way. It is NOTHING personal. If any such thing, it's a thank you note.

After decades of reading miswritten English such as, "I shouldn't of said that" when it was supposed to be, "I shouldn't have said that," you have done the opposite.

What you have written should be, "I kind of..." rather than, "I kind've."

You intended to say, "I somewhat..." rather than, "I kind have... ," the latter of which makes no sense. I have (I've) never seen that done. Ever. And it has changed my mood, for the better.

More than 90% of the time, I might point out an error like this to imply of the the person who made it, "What an idiot!" Not here. Somehow it's just funny. Because I truly have never seen it done before.

And it's a lot like this thread, enough so that I can move on without reading several more pages. This minor but novel mistake is the jewel that makes it worthwhile that I read this far. Thank you. Really. I am not making fun of you or having a laugh at your expense, even though it could easily look that way.

Your goof has served as a wake up, and it will remain for me. The rest was just me wasting time reading other people's thoughts and feelings and arguments about a game that last night struck me as so bad that it wasn't worth getting sad or angry over. It was just one of those, "Oh, look, it's going to be a crummy loss in the NCAA Tournament that ends a team's season abruptly" games. Teams have them. Some solid examples have been mentioned.

I don't need to look further and see if anybody brought up the Tennessee game when El-Amin limped, or the Mississippi State game when Ricky Moore was injured. Some games simply deliver the season's death blow early, and without much surprise, and then the clock runs out according to the rules. No tears, no teeth-gnashing. Just, "Yeah, we could have had a game like this, and we did." Or, as some might say, "We could of had a game like this, and we did."

I kind of like that it took an absurdity to remind me to let it go. Or, as I now might joke, "I kind've like that it took an absurdity..."

I really do apologize if it feels like I've been putting you down. Sometimes I do that. Definitely not this time.

And, yeah, that Iowa State game was a stinker, and Oriakhi missed around the rim that season more than I've ever seen anyone do until this year when it was a team 'feature' (or was it a bug? ).

I watched this team, this conference, this college basketball season for more hours and with greater interest than any year since 2014. Other than last year's cancelation, may it be nothing worse than "that COVID year."

And thank you again to whoever posted that first heads up about Paige Bueckers. I've watched every Women's game this year, and I don't think I have ever done that before, even though I've paid attention since '95, with a wide variety throughout, before settling into only marquee match-ups and Elite 8 & beyond since Taurasi.

And the George Mason game was ours, but Calhoun didn't give Adrien the chance to dominate, which was more unforgivable than taking Sanogo out against St John's.

I like that the ACC is 2-5, that Buddy Boeheim looks like a world-beater, that Vance Jackson will play his 2nd Tournament game now buried deep on Eric Musselman's bench and down to under 5 minutes per game.

It's "So what" time.

I could watch all day (some good match-ups), or nothing at all until UConn-High Point.

Madness!
 
.-.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,202
Messages
4,556,727
Members
10,442
Latest member
Virginiafan


Top Bottom