Tis the Offseason - Top 5 Most Painful Losses

[Tenspro2002]

Texas/Yale 2014 - The season completely felt like it died when we lost to Texas (quietest I have ever heard Gampel), then shot twice in the head to confirm it against Yale.

In retrospect that looks spot on, though many on this board were vilified for expressing those thoughts at the time.

 

[JonnyRI]

The entirety of the 2011-12 season was a giant painful loss.

Yeah and looking back that team was crazy talented. Lamb, Shabazz, Boat, Drummond...

That year was just long drawn out suffering to me

 

[tzznandrew]

That UNC game still pi$$es me off as well. That was a down year for UNC, and We should of won that game. They whooped up on us big time!

UNC was 30-3 with Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison. They were a 1 seed. How is that a down year?

 

[SubbaBub]

1. Duke 1990 and it isn't even close

2. George Mason 2006
3. Florida 1994
4. Mississippi St 1996
5. Texas 2003

This is the is list, you may lock the thread.

 

[mauconnfan]

I can think of so many but the reality always comes to the first "big" one vs Duke in 89-90. I mean Tate had it in his hands for crying out loud how much closer can you get. And then Chrissy ruined everything - it hurt for sure!

 

[nelsonmuntz]

1) George Mason 2006 - UConn had the best team in the country and Boone and Armstrong get abused for 45 minutes down low by 2 6'6 GMU big men that were not good enough to play for some of the intramural teams at UConn.

2) Florida 1994 - Calhoun's worst game as a coach. BCU had cleared out our bracket, and all we had to do was beat a rockball team that couldn't score and a Final Four bid was all but guaranteed. The refs call it loose, and Allen, Donny, Ollie and Donyell are ICE COLD from outside, and Sheffer can't get open in the second half. Ollie actually took 2 3's this game (huh?). Donyell, Sheffer and Ollie all play 39+ minutes, while Allen plays 20 and Fair plays only 4. I know Fair didn't play defense, but we didn't need defense in this game. Hayward played 15 minutes. I don't think you create mismatches against a team playing rockball by playing more Hayward.

3) Duke 1990 - what is forgotten about this game is that Hurley had a case of the runs and had to keep leaving the court, and we still couldn't beat them.

4) UCLA 1995 - If someone on Missouri had just played a little defense on Tyus Edney's last possession two rounds earlier, UConn may have one its first championship in 1995.

5) Seton Hall 2001 - I can't remember the exact date, but UConn lost to SHU late in the season in a game where UConn just got lit up from outside on shots that were so open that I could have hit most of them. This loss effectively knocked UConn out of the tournament. It was one of those games, which have been rare the last 26 years, where I was seriously worried whether UConn would ever return to where it was. Brown, Robertson and Butler looked completely lost on defense.


Games that didn't hurt that bad:

Mississippi State 1996 - I didn't think this team was that good, despite its great record. After Allen and Sheffer, there was Knight, who was good but not the kind of guy that could pour in 20 if the team needed it. A 12 for 39 game from Allen and Sheffer was always a possibility.

Maryland 2002 - We were so close, and I thought he officiating as horrendous (treating Baxter like he was Karl Malone), but Maryland was the better team and we knew Okafor and Gordon's best days were still to come.

San Diego 2008 - It is really hard to change the game plan on the fly for losing a PG as good as Price.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Texas/Yale 2014 - The season completely felt like it died when we lost to Texas (quietest I have ever heard Gampel), then shot twice in the head to confirm it against Yale.

I can attest to this. I've never been in a place before and seen the air just get sucked out of it like that. Everyone was in shock, and then we all just stood up quietly and walked out. So weird.

 

[Inyatkin]

UNC was 30-3 with Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison. They were a 1 seed. How is that a down year?

Yeah it's not like I liked losing that game, but it was highly unlikely we were going to win in those circumstances. We lost that game on Selection Sunday. And knowing we had the whole team back the next year made it go down a lot easier.

 

[Candyman]

1) Duke in 1990 was easily the tops for me. The day the dream season ended.

I was freshman in high school at the time and the whole state was all about UConn they even played a version some popular song on the radio at the time from "its all about you" to "Its all about UConn". Everybody we drove by had Go UConn banners from the newspaper taped to their car window. The state of CT was going bonkers for us. Might have been when the Horde was created, but not sure.

The team had a full court press that I have never seen before and will never see again. I mean Nadav averaged 4 steals a game. Think about that a 6'9 forward averaged 4 steals a game.

Throw in the Tate George shot the game before and we were destined to be in the final four. Then Tate dropped that pass in OT and it went out of bounds followed by hitting the shot ending the season. Only time I litertally had tears for a loss (I had tears also in 99 when we won it all).

2) Florida in 94. Donyell choking from the free throw line is what I remember most.

3)Geroge Mason loss was very bad loss but didnt hurt as bad because we had two titles already.

 

[Sibeerian]

1. Duke 1990 and it isn't even close

That is the truth. We're talking taking a two-hour shower the next morning staring at the wall. If you were too young to experience it... good for you. Crushing end to a dream season.

Any NCAA tourney loss trumps a regular season loss - especially during those years before we started winning it all. Number two on my list is losing to Florida 1994, with our best player missing two free throws to win at the end of regulation. Three was Mississippi State - so cruel with our point guards hurting.

I'm a lot more philosophical after losses since we've won four championships.

 

[Shabazzkets]

That is the truth. We're talking taking a two-hour shower the next morning staring at the wall. If you were too young to experience it... good for you. Crushing end to a dream season.

Any NCAA tourney loss trumps a regular season loss - especially during those years before we started winning it all. Number two on my list is losing to Florida 1994, with our best player missing two free throws to win at the end of regulation. Three was Mississippi State - so cruel with our point guards hurting.

I'm a lot more philosophical after losses since we've won four championships.

The 1990 Duke loss was the worst, I don't even need a top 5 list. That game was 1 - 5. Come on. The Final 4 was in Tate's hands. Maybe we get smoked in the Final 4, but none of us were thinking about that at the time.

But for four (four!) subsequent titles, that game would still haunt me. (Although George Mason would be sixth (second) on my list...that should have been a Final 4 team.)

 

[ASweet3781]

Nothing compares to 1990 Duke, 1994 Florida, and 2006 George Mason all for the reasons given above. No other loss approaches those 3 in terms of kick in the balls and the consequences. Games we had won against teams we should have beaten. 1990/1994 both could have gotten the Final 4 monkey off our back right away. 2006 could have won it all.

1995 UCLA, 1998 UNC, 2002 Maryland, and 2003 Texas were tough because we could have won and had nice paths had we did but we lost close games to the better teams. 1995 stands out in this group because had Missouri finished the job against UCLA, they were good enough to win it all.

2009 Michigan State was more annoying than heart breaking because of where the game was played and how poor we played in the 2nd half. I don't think we beat UNC. It would have been a much better game than the MSU-UNC game was though.

1996 Mississippi State as usual the most overrated loss. It sucked at the time but the 1996 season was vacated by the NCAA. It was wiped from the record books even had we won. It didn't count.

Bad losses where injuries derailed the team early- 2000 Tennessee, 2005 NC State and 2008 San Diego.

A put us out of our misery loss- 2012 Iowa State.

 

[Doheny]

I can think of so many but the reality always comes to the first "big" one vs Duke in 89-90. I mean Tate had it in his hands for crying out loud how much closer can you get. And then Chrissy ruined everything - it hurt for sure!

Not only was it excruciating then, but they've replayed it over and over again during every tournament since then. The wound has never healed.

 

[Matt1010]

I can attest to this. I've never been in a place before and seen the air just get sucked out of it like that. Everyone was in shock, and then we all just stood up quietly and walked out. So weird.

Completely agree, my boys and I were first row of the upper secondary student section so the shot was on the opposite side of the court. Everyone around us thought it was only a 2 (would have tied the game) and even the scoreboard reflected that at first so we all thought OT. Absolutely heartbreaking L.

 

[David 76]

Completely agree, my boys and I were first row of the upper secondary student section so the shot was on the opposite side of the court. Everyone around us thought it was only a 2 (would have tied the game) and even the scoreboard reflected that at first so we all thought OT. Absolutely heartbreaking L.

Yes, it was very strange to have a point added to the scoreboard well after play had ended and then realize you had lost. We were stupefied.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

Georgetown when Roy hit that dumb 3 from top of the key after patrick ewing jr traveled and we got called a BS goal tend call.