This wasn't any ordinary season

[campcalhoun2009]

That's why people are so upset/disappointed/frustrated.

This isn't 2010, or 2008, or 2007, it didn't end in a heart breaker like 2006, or had a team that wasn't ready to contend like 2005.

We were number 3 in the preseason, coming off a championship, an all american and the best recruit we've ever had (who was also a hometown hero we've been waiting YEARS for who came here in dramatic fashion).

This team was supposed to be talented and experienced and poised and constantly let you down.....BUT....they also constantly strung you along, gave you a reason to believe they could make a run, they could do it. The season was a constant yo-yo of expectations and hope. Because how could a team this talented only win 20 games?

You see flashes in specific games you see flashes in stretches of the season. I think everyone was holding out hope we'd make a run.

Even tonight's game was a microchasm of the season, take a huge punch to the gut then fight back only to give up another big run. I wanted to turn the game off after we got down 24 then they fought back to 6 down only to fold down the stretch. Then the Lamb play.

If it was any old season I don't think people would be as mad but this is one of the most disappointing UConn seasons in recent memory and given the uncertainty that next year brings I don't get why people are being ripped for being mad/upset/frustrated/emotional.

Frankly I don't know how you can't be. So to the posters who make their lives into calling people who react emotionally to things like this bad fans or hating the team or s or whatever....shut up and let people vent. It's a god damn message board that's what it's for. Step off your high horse and understand where people are coming from because you're much worse than people who are just feeling hurt right now. I don't care how many posts you have.

 

[zls44]

What's worse: this, or losing as a 15 seed? What about Drake losing on a buzzer-beater after an incredible year in 2008?

We know they were hyped. We get that. But they weren't that good. You are incapable of reconciling what you think they should have been with what they really are. That's the problem. That's YOUR problem.

 

[RickyMoore21]

This team was supposed to be talented and experienced and poised and constantly let you down.....BUT....they also constantly strung you along, gave you a reason to believe they could make a run, they could do it. The season was a constant yo-yo of expectations and hope..

extremely well stated, i couldn't agree more

 

[Silk City]

I kind of agree with both of the first few posts haha. I still don't know what to think...tough but strangely entertaining season.

 

[selles]

That's why people are so upset/disappointed/frustrated.

This isn't 2010, or 2008, or 2007, it didn't end in a heart breaker like 2006, or had a team that wasn't ready to contend like 2005.

We were number 3 in the preseason, coming off a championship, an all american and the best recruit we've ever had (who was also a hometown hero we've been waiting YEARS for who came here in dramatic fashion).

This team was supposed to be talented and experienced and poised and constantly let you down.....BUT....they also constantly strung you along, gave you a reason to believe they could make a run, they could do it. The season was a constant yo-yo of expectations and hope. Because how could a team this talented only win 20 games?

You see flashes in specific games you see flashes in stretches of the season. I think everyone was holding out hope we'd make a run.

Even tonight's game was a microchasm of the season, take a huge punch to the gut then fight back only to give up another big run. I wanted to turn the game off after we got down 24 then they fought back to 6 down only to fold down the stretch. Then the Lamb play.

If it was any old season I don't think people would be as mad but this is one of the most disappointing UConn seasons in recent memory and given the uncertainty that next year brings I don't get why people are being ripped for being mad/upset/frustrated/emotional.

Frankly I don't know how you can't be. So to the posters who make their lives into calling people who react emotionally to things like this bad fans or hating the team or s or whatever....shut up and let people vent. It's a god damn message board that's what it's for. Step off your high horse and understand where people are coming from because you're much worse than people who are just feeling hurt right now. I don't care how many posts you have.

With the years you cite you show your age. Get some perspective. You want to talk disappointment? Welcome to 1996. A team on the cusp after 6 years of trying...and we lose to Miss. St. THAT was disappointing. I kicked puppies for 6 months after that loss. Florida in '94, UCLA in '95, Miss. St. in '96. Then we go through the Ricky Moore/Kirk King fiasco in '97 and it looks like we're in deep trouble as a program.

And I became a UConn fan with the Dream Season team. So that doesn't even count the folks who persevered through the Perno era.

Bottom line, be frustrated. Fair enough. Vent all you want. But don't be surprised when people remind you that this loss is nothing - nothing - compared to the period before we'd tasted the heights.

 

[zls44]

Anyone bitching about the state of the program, or disappointment, was not a fan before 1999. It's physically impossible.

The Duke loss. The Florida loss. The Mississippi State loss. The UCLA loss.

I'll put those 4 against any other blueblood program (possessive) for kick in the pants losses. Any of them. Line them up.

 

[UCDaveD]

What's worse: this, or losing as a 15 seed? What about Drake losing on a buzzer-beater after an incredible year in 2008?

We know they were hyped. We get that. But they weren't that good. You are incapable of reconciling what you think they should have been with what they really are. That's the problem. That's YOUR problem.

Trying to tell people how they should/shouldn't feel is the epitome of a move. I'm pissed and I make no apologies for it. Deal with it.

 

[ASweet3781]

As a fan I could barely get into this season, even before it started going down hill. I couldn't ask for anything more after last years run. It was pure magic. After last years tournament run it was all down hill from there. And I have to imagine a lot of the players probably felt the same way. It's disappointing but it was predictable.

I knew after Oriakhi made some comments on twitter about being benched during the Bahamas that we we're in for some trouble. Alex was always one of the most positive and happy to interact with the fans on facebook/twitter. Last year he would always post on the day of a big game telling fans to tune in. This year? I saw none of that especially after the Bahamas when he made the tweet about Calhoun and the fans. The silence was defeaning and I knew this year was going to be far different from last year. The chemistry, leadership, and enthusiasm just wasn't there. It didn't work. It sucks but it's just the way it was.

 

[Bryan Lord]

they didnt really string us along. We just didnt want to believe our eyes all year.

 

[UCONNFanInNC]

The Duke loss. The Florida loss. The Mississippi State loss. The UCLA loss.

That's a nice way to start a gloomy Friday. I actually don't remember the Miss St loss. I think I blocked it out of my memory it was so horrible. Duke made me cry. Florida made my then girlfriend, now wife, wonder what she was getting into.

I'm convincing myself this morning that it's all OK. Last season was, in a word (or 2), a joy. It was the crumpled $20 bill in your pocket that you didn't know was there...except, it was a $100 bill. I'm one of those people who believes in the bitching grace period.

So, I'll just sit here and grind my teeth this morning and hope that a few select people who never endeared themselves this season to a certain bald 37 year old man just go pro. Because if they can't make me happy, why should they stay?
/sarcasm

 

[The Funster]

This loss hurts but you could see it coming. The losses that zls references were like having the best looking girl in the world privately tell you she loves you and then publicly rip your heart out and dances on it with six inch stiletto heels. You stand there, devastated, as you watch your heart sliced and diced into a bloody mess all the while still pumping your life blood all over the stage as your grief is drowned out by the cacophony of millions of onlookers as they egg her on she dances to some freaking Rihanna song and then Simon Crowell doesn't grade her but grades you on the way you go about and silently pick up the pieces of your battered heart.

Now that freaking hurts.

 

[huskymagic]

That's why people are so upset/disappointed/frustrated.

This isn't 2010, or 2008, or 2007, it didn't end in a heart breaker like 2006, or had a team that wasn't ready to contend like 2005.

We were number 3 in the preseason, coming off a championship, an all american and the best recruit we've ever had (who was also a hometown hero we've been waiting YEARS for who came here in dramatic fashion).

This team was supposed to be talented and experienced and poised and constantly let you down.....BUT....they also constantly strung you along, gave you a reason to believe they could make a run, they could do it. The season was a constant yo-yo of expectations and hope. Because how could a team this talented only win 20 games?

You see flashes in specific games you see flashes in stretches of the season. I think everyone was holding out hope we'd make a run.

Even tonight's game was a microchasm of the season, take a huge punch to the gut then fight back only to give up another big run. I wanted to turn the game off after we got down 24 then they fought back to 6 down only to fold down the stretch. Then the Lamb play.

If it was any old season I don't think people would be as mad but this is one of the most disappointing UConn seasons in recent memory and given the uncertainty that next year brings I don't get why people are being ripped for being mad/upset/frustrated/emotional.

Frankly I don't know how you can't be. So to the posters who make their lives into calling people who react emotionally to things like this bad fans or hating the team or s or whatever....shut up and let people vent. It's a god damn message board that's what it's for. Step off your high horse and understand where people are coming from because you're much worse than people who are just feeling hurt right now. I don't care how many posts you have.

good post calhoun but you know boneyarders have different agendas and different view points on things. I happen to agree with you completely, and everything you said is completely spot on. Like I have said winning isnt everything to me its the only thing. Just because we won last yea doesnt mean I am happy with this year. This year has been an utter failure but the only thing we can do is try to get better for next year.

 

[gibhunter]

1994 Florida and 1995 UCLA were maddening because those teams were talented enough to win it all. 1994 Marshall choked the two free throws any one of which would have won the game and we lost to Florida in OT in Florida. 1995 we play UCLA anywhere outside of California and we win our first championship. Those were the two best teams that tourney and we were on the road. This team doesn't even compare to those two teams.

 

[tzznandrew]

If it was any old season I don't think people would be as mad but this is one of the most disappointing UConn seasons in recent memory and given the uncertainty that next year brings I don't get why people are being ripped for being mad/upset/frustrated/emotional.

Frankly I don't know how you can't be. So to the posters who make their lives into calling people who react emotionally to things like this bad fans or hating the team or s or whatever....shut up and let people vent. It's a god damn message board that's what it's for. Step off your high horse and understand where people are coming from because you're much worse than people who are just feeling hurt right now. I don't care how many posts you have.

Nobody is getting upset at people who are disappointed. Can we please stop stating this is the case.

I went to bed drunk last night off of beer, yelled at my TV (and kept my wife up) into the wee hours. This team was a disappointment to us all.

Talking about how and why it was a disappointment, and the uncertainty going forward, and all those things are what message boards are for. But please stop equating this to what some people are doing and getting killed for.

It's the people who are so hurt they can't fathom that the players are hurt even more--I mean they played the god-damned-game! It's the posters who assume these kids don't care, the posters who are happily begging players to leave, the posters who seem to think they have more at stake in the performance of the UConn players than the UConn players themselves.

You are upset, you want to talk about basketball, or even some of the pain that comes with being a fan? Fine.

You want to come here and treat it like a visit to the psychologist, where your posts amount to "I think Lamb has cheating on me with the NBA, well good riddance," "I don't think Drummond loves me anymore, he just doesn't have that look in his eye," etc., well, I'm sorry to tell you this, but this isn't private. That works because you're telling some trained professional your innermost thoughts and no one else will know. This isn't that place. This isn't Facebook or Twitter either. These comments aren't terribly productive, are annoying, and are public.

Go to grief counseling if you want to be able to vent.
Write it in a journal.
But hold onto any posts where you extrapolate the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of these kids based off your own feelings.

 

[tzznandrew]

good post calhoun but you know boneyarders have different agendas and different view points on things. I happen to agree with you completely, and everything you said is completely spot on. Like I have said winning isnt everything to me its the only thing. Just because we won last yea doesnt mean I am happy with this year. This year has been an utter failure but the only thing we can do is try to get better for next year.

Nobody is happy they lost this year. Everybody is upset.

Some people have perspective.

What's annoying to most people is the same thing that angers a adult about teenagers--they seem to think everything should go their way and that their thoughts and feelings are not only ridiculously more important than they are, but also uniquely different. Then, those people grow up, and, if they're well adjusted, they realize that, yes, winning every year would be awesome, but that's not going to happen. You get upset. You get annoyed. You move on.

 

[tzznandrew]

The Mississippi State loss.

I was in sixth grade in Waterbury, CT. I was the only UConn fan (not the case anymore, even where I live now, in Boston, UConn is as popular as Duke, UNC, etc.--BC doesn't register). I was so adamant about how good that team was. When they lost, I wept.

And then some kid, so tired of me bragging about Ray Allen brought in the Hartford Courant to rub it in my face.

That is probably the worst loss for me.

I was too young to remember Laettner. The impact of Donyell Marshall's misses only really hit me years later. UCLA wasn't a given.

Mississippi State should have been.

 

[The Funster]

The Laettner shot was a kick in the nuts. What we did to Clemson, was done to us. It really hurt and for me it was like, "Welcome to the big time. When you dare to dream big, you're gonna get hurt big."

 

[imno1]

I wouldn't say the loss was as big a disappointment as the others that have been mentioned in this post. The lost was typical of the kind of season we had. We were a middle of the road team that could beat or lose to teams that were on our level but probably couldn't beat any of the better teams. I think we overrated our talent (especially our front court) and the coaching staff had an off year. Every game seemed the same to me. Opponents had easy time getting their shots off, had a clear opening when driving thru the lane, and got to every lose ball. So yes a disappointing season but not an unexpected lose