Tournament Losses

[AdamaNation]

Where do you rank this as a “good” loss? Ugh that hurts to ask. But I was proud and a tad bit bummed we didn’t bring this defense to Maui!! Had to grow. Anyway. I’ d say this was 2nd.
Duke in our first E8 put the world on notice so I have that as 1.
Today.
Maryland E8

 

[BFieldHusky]

2003 loss to Texas in S16. That team came back hungry to win a title in 2004.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

There is no such thing as a good loss, This one however was not as bas as some have been.

 

[businesslawyer]

Where do you rank this as a “good” loss? Ugh that hurts to ask. But I was proud and a tad bit bummed we didn’t bring this defense to Maui!! Had to grow. Anyway. I’ d say this was 2nd.
Duke in our first E8 put the world on notice so I have that as 1.
Today.
Maryland E8

The loss to Duke in ‘90 was not a good loss. There was no reason we shouldn’t have won that game, and Duke wasn’t better than us. Good losses, like today, are where you play your heart out and lose to a better team. Maryland in ‘02 was the best example of that. UNC in Carolina in the E8 in ‘98. Maybe UCLA the senior year of Donny Marshall and Kevin Ollie.

 

[NYC_HUSKY22]

2003 loss to Texas in S16. That team came back hungry to win a title in 2004.

Makes me wish all this NIL / Portal stuff could vanish back into thin air

 

[Alum86]

This is not a good loss. If they were getting blown out and had to storm back but ended with a 2 pt L, maybe. But this was in our hand and we went into our normal 5 minute drought. Bad loss, not as bad as George Mason or Duke/Lettner, but bad nonetheless. The recent 2 nattys seems to offset some of the pain.

 

[DCHuskyFan]

I’m still upset about that 2006 team and the GMU game. Too good of a team not to make F4, but like this team, frustrating, except more talented because they had Rudy and Marcus and a couple other NBA first rounders.

 

[boog204]

This, to me, wasn’t a good loss because even though we were the underdog, we outplayed them and made crucial errors that gave them the opportunity to make plays. It’s not as bad as others because we really battled, but damn, we just made poor decisions at the worst time and the best player on the court was able to kill us.

The losses to UCLA and Maryland were “good” losses because we played well and simply lost to the better team both games.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Where do you rank this as a “good” loss? Ugh that hurts to ask. But I was proud and a tad bit bummed we didn’t bring this defense to Maui!! Had to grow. Anyway. I’ d say this was 2nd.
Duke in our first E8 put the world on notice so I have that as 1.
Today.
Maryland E8

1995 team played a great game in the Elite 8 against UCLA. UCLA was just a little better that afternoon.

 

[metsfan2323]

Makes me wish all this NIL / Portal stuff could vanish back into thin air

Be careful what you wish for, the 23 and 24 titles would likely vanish with it.

Karaban might come back next year because of NIL.

 

[HCCForever]

This is not a good loss. If they were getting blown out and had to storm back but ended with a 2 pt L, maybe. But this was in our hand and we went into our normal 5 minute drought. Bad loss, not as bad as George Mason or Duke/Lettner, but bad nonetheless. The recent 2 nattys seems to offset some of the pain.

Agreed. I still think of that George Mason loss. I’ll forget about this one rather quickly.

 

[NewBlood]

Where do you rank this as a “good” loss? Ugh that hurts to ask. But I was proud and a tad bit bummed we didn’t bring this defense to Maui!! Had to grow. Anyway. I’ d say this was 2nd.
Duke in our first E8 put the world on notice so I have that as 1.
Today.
Maryland E8

95 vs UCLA
98 vs NC
02 vs Maryland
03 vs Texas

Losses that should have not happened:
96 Mississippi State
06 George Mason
05 NC State
25 Florida

A game we win if no injury to starter:
09 MSU

 

[SubbaBub]

It felt very 2003-ish.

 

[Hoophound]

This was a good loss in the sense that we went on a big stage with the “best team” in the tourney and went down in a highly competive brawl. We missed too many open shots, we were the better team today in so many ways. Everyone who watched that game knows that the defending back to back champs were legit again this year in a rebuild season. It commands respect and we went out there and took it. One or two bad bounces or missed easy buckets go the other way and we win this game with breathing room.

 

[NewBlood]

It felt very 2003-ish.

And I'll take next year's result. We will be contending for #7 next year!

I think we are pretty close if we can get that PG, doesn't need to be an All American, but we just saw what a stud PG can do over the last two games. We saw it the last two years.

 

[Boost'ED]

1995 team played a great game in the Elite 8 against UCLA. UCLA was just a little better that afternoon.

One of my favorite UConn teams and games (I recorded it on VHS...LOL).

Ray went off that game, and the late great Al McGuire (who called the game for CBS) said Ray was the best player JC recruited.

He also said Ray's shooting form was perfect...."fish hooks with the wrists", or something similar.

 

[superjohn]

This, to me, wasn’t a good loss because even though we were the underdog, we outplayed them and made crucial errors that gave them the opportunity to make plays. It’s not as bad as others because we really battled, but damn, we just made poor decisions at the worst time and the best player on the court was able to kill us.

The losses to UCLA and Maryland were “good” losses because we played well and simply lost to the better team both games.

Florida is the better team with the best player. All Florida's top scorers are seniors and the best player on the court made the big plays when it mattered. Our two most talented scorers are a freshman and sophomore. It was impressive we dictated pace for the game and even made it look like we were the better team for a signifcant chunk of the game despite our shooting but just like the Maryland and UCLA games the better team won today.

 

[boog204]

Florida is the better team with the best player. All Florida's top scorers are seniors and the best player on the court made the big plays when it mattered. Our two most talented scorers are a freshman and sophomore. It was impressive we dictated pace for the game and even made it look like we were the better team for a signifcant chunk of the game despite our shooting but just like the Maryland and UCLA games the better team won today.

Oh I agree. This is not a bad loss by any stretch. I just can’t put it in the same “good” column b/c our mistakes led to the loss. I think Florida is clearly the better team and would probably win 9 out of 10. But this was the one. My memory is the Maryland and UCLA losses were that we played great. We just weren’t good enough and didn’t beat ourselves.

 

[jibsey]

Today shots didn’t fall but some rebounds went bad and Solo lost one out of bounds. No loss is good but compare it to St. John’s a #2 seed.

 

[Marat]

I had a feeling all along that Florida might come back at the end if it remained a tight game. We missed so many 3s, multiple layups, in the first 3/4 of the game. All those points were left on the table for them. And to make it worse the lack of rebounding on FTs at the end was too much to overcome. But given all that they were controlling the game till the last several minutes which is crazy when we were expecting too be smacked. Still a good loss in that regard.

To me the worst loss will remain the 1990 Laetner Duke heartbreak when Huskymania took over the state, right after The Shot vs Clemson.

 

[CTBasketball]

Felt very similar to the pre-2004 Calhoun era losses where we were the better coached team, gave it out all, but came up short.

As Hurley said, it was an honorable way to go out.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

This one stinks because I wanted it for this crew that's had - for a program with high standards - a disappointing season. They had a blueprint and executed it for about 38 minutes. Unbelievable job by the coaching staff. Couldn't ask for more.

Coming into this game as much as I wanted to tell myself they were going to pull it off the rational side of me knew that they've been inconsistent all year against teams not nearly as dangerous as Florida and it was probably unreasonable to expect them to put it all together for 40 minutes for the first time in late March.

But I don't know how you can't be proud of the effort tonight. As much as Hurley is a sound bite machine what he says about putting a champion down has some merit. They didn't get to the tournament and crap the bed or play scared or roll over. They went out on their shield. They went toe to toe with - in my opinion - the best team in the country and came up a little short. Clayton's a stud. Those shots were huge. That's what a first-team All-American does. Florida's a better team and they made a couple winning plays and took it at the end. That's life. For me, as disappointing as it is to lose this is as close to ending the season on a high note as you can get when you don't win. I'm proud of this group.

 

[businesslawyer]

Felt very similar to the pre-2004 Calhoun era losses where we were the better coached team, gave it out all, but came up short.

As Hurley said, it was an honorable way to go out.

It’s sports. As many teams lose a game as win it. If you give it your best shot, it sucks but it is what it is. We gave it our best shot today. Unlike Maryland in ‘02, it wasn’t that we played our best but you couldn’t play harder than we did. Just not quite good enough. And credit to Florida who did what it had to do.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The loss to Duke in 1990 was the most deflating feeling due to a sporting event that I can remember. The only thing that was close was the last minute loss to Rutgers two weeks after Jazz was killed.

One thing that sticks out about today's game is that going in, I felt we had a miniscule margin for error, yet we were able to defend well enough that we expanded that margin significantly, We went down as champions.

 

[businesslawyer]

The loss to Duke in 1990 was the most deflating feeling due to a sporting event that I can remember. The only thing that was close was the last minute loss to Rutgers two weeks after Jazz was killed.

One thing that sticks out about today's game is that going in, I felt we had a miniscule margin for error, yet we were able to defend well enough that we expanded that margin significantly, We went down as champions.

The only things about that loss to Duke that made it tolerable were (i) we were on borrowed time after the Tate George shot 36 hours earlier, and (ii) that entire season from January on was so unbelievably both unexpected and great. If that game happened again now, when we have expectations, it would have been much worse.