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- Oct 26, 2017
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From reading the Boneyard last night and today, it's clear that this season is already over (too small, too slow, not athletic, not mentally tough, etc), so I thought I would retreat into the past and relish the many amazing accomplishments our ladies have treated us to over the year. And, I'm going to try to rank them!
In my rankings, I have a bias towards lengthy things and things accomplished by different groups of women. That's why 4 NC's in a row is not ranked higher -- it was a super recruiting class with lots of great players right before and after them.
#1) 111 consecutive wins. This is almost unthinkable. More than twice as long as any other team (of course, UConn also had 90 and 70). So many things can go wrong to result in an unexpected loss -- cold shooting by us, hot shooting by an opponent, injuries (oh, how well we know that), even a bad call or two during a close game. I still have nightmares of Saniya's drive to the basket with 15 seconds left, when we could have and should have held for the last shot. She traveled, and then the diminutive William hit that jump shot over a leaping Gabby. Ouch!
#2) 6 undefeated seasons... only 3 undefeated seasons by other teams, none of them more than once. And it was done by 4 different UConn teams: Lobo's.. Bird, Diana, Swin...Maya (2x)... Stewie (2x). And as noted above, so many things can go wrong to result in a loss
#3) 11-1 record in NC games. (11-0 until our recent loss to SC). This is preposterous, again to avoid losing, to teams good enough to make it to the championship game. To remember how easy it is to lose, check out our record in semifinal games -- it's barely over .500
#4) 14 straight Final Fours. Again, a long, amazing streak maintained by a bunch of different groups of ladies. And the next longest streak by any other team is 5!
#5) 25+ years in a row without losing consecutive games (that's 2 1/2 decades, folks!). And it took a raft of injuries for that streak to end.
#6) 4 straight National Championships... seems low, but I explained why above. It was Stewie and a bunch of other great players. (and we might have gotten a bit lucky when Louisville knocked of the Griner Baylor team).
#7) Several hundred games in a row without a loss to an unranked team (one of our ace researches can probably provide the exact number). We lost on a last second basket to St. John's, who were coming off a big win and would have been ranked the next week even if they hadn't beaten us. Bad timing for us!
Seven seems like a good number to end at. Other joys are most consec weeks ranked at number 1 (51), most consecutive weeks ranked (566, I think. We just got that this week, breaking our tie with TN), 26 first round draft choices (6 more than TN), 5 overall #1 WNBA picks (ND, TN, Stan, and So Car each have had 2).
What say you?
In my rankings, I have a bias towards lengthy things and things accomplished by different groups of women. That's why 4 NC's in a row is not ranked higher -- it was a super recruiting class with lots of great players right before and after them.
#1) 111 consecutive wins. This is almost unthinkable. More than twice as long as any other team (of course, UConn also had 90 and 70). So many things can go wrong to result in an unexpected loss -- cold shooting by us, hot shooting by an opponent, injuries (oh, how well we know that), even a bad call or two during a close game. I still have nightmares of Saniya's drive to the basket with 15 seconds left, when we could have and should have held for the last shot. She traveled, and then the diminutive William hit that jump shot over a leaping Gabby. Ouch!
#2) 6 undefeated seasons... only 3 undefeated seasons by other teams, none of them more than once. And it was done by 4 different UConn teams: Lobo's.. Bird, Diana, Swin...Maya (2x)... Stewie (2x). And as noted above, so many things can go wrong to result in a loss
#3) 11-1 record in NC games. (11-0 until our recent loss to SC). This is preposterous, again to avoid losing, to teams good enough to make it to the championship game. To remember how easy it is to lose, check out our record in semifinal games -- it's barely over .500
#4) 14 straight Final Fours. Again, a long, amazing streak maintained by a bunch of different groups of ladies. And the next longest streak by any other team is 5!
#5) 25+ years in a row without losing consecutive games (that's 2 1/2 decades, folks!). And it took a raft of injuries for that streak to end.
#6) 4 straight National Championships... seems low, but I explained why above. It was Stewie and a bunch of other great players. (and we might have gotten a bit lucky when Louisville knocked of the Griner Baylor team).
#7) Several hundred games in a row without a loss to an unranked team (one of our ace researches can probably provide the exact number). We lost on a last second basket to St. John's, who were coming off a big win and would have been ranked the next week even if they hadn't beaten us. Bad timing for us!
Seven seems like a good number to end at. Other joys are most consec weeks ranked at number 1 (51), most consecutive weeks ranked (566, I think. We just got that this week, breaking our tie with TN), 26 first round draft choices (6 more than TN), 5 overall #1 WNBA picks (ND, TN, Stan, and So Car each have had 2).
What say you?
