Weird UConn Losses

[Woodson]

Yup. And Tooles was a flaming dummy. After the BE final in 2004, where Ben Gordon carried the Huskies, Tooles wouldn't even give the ball to Gordon at the end of the game.

I always remember that too lol

 

[gsmooth]

I got one. How about that 1994 UConn team with Donyell average about 25 pts a game losing to Ohio University 85-76 at that Hawaii tournament. Ohio gave UConn their first loss of that year to a 8-1 record and produced only 1 of 5 losses for that UConn team. It turns out that Ohio team was good and made the NCAAT as a #12 seed and was picked by many to upset #5 Indiana. But I remember after seeing the year UConn was having and dominating the BE regular season, I kept thinking, "how the hell did they lose to Ohio University, not Ohio State?"

Even when Ohio University's name got called for the NCAAT I remember Jim Nance saying, "this team beat UConn".

 

[alexd]

The game against Miami in January 2003. Up 4 with 9 seconds left. Was watching with some people from work and we were in Florida. So as the only obvious UConn fan after we lost every person in that bar/restaurant talked smack……. Bad night as I was also with clients so had to take it without a fight since none of them really knew how much it bothered me.

Uggh. Darius Rice was all Miami needed in those 9 seconds.

 

[pepband99]

Miami beating us, in Gampel, on Senior Day 1999. One of only 2 losses all year.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Can’t get any weirder than an all net 3 from Roy Hibbert for the one.

All the other context of the situation isn’t too weird. They were a top 10 team we weren’t, playing on the road, etc. But man that was a tough way to let a great win slip away.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Yup. And Tooles was a flaming dummy. After the BE final in 2004, where Ben Gordon carried the Huskies, Tooles wouldn't even give the ball to Gordon at the end of the game.

Yup Tooles was a Tool……sorry could not let the obvious go without mention….and I said it a lot that year.

 

[Hurleyman216]

That Arkansas game during the Ollie era where they wiped us by like 40 points also comes to mind…blue blood programs should never lose like that to anybody, ever.

 

[HooperScooper]

That Arkansas game during the Ollie era where they wiped us by like 40 points also comes to mind…blue blood programs should never lose like that to anybody, ever.

Unfortunately it seemed like the Huskies got their butts whipped a bunch that season. Seems like a lifetime ago at this point.

 

[phillionaire]

That Arkansas game during the Ollie era where they wiped us by like 40 points also comes to mind…blue blood programs should never lose like that to anybody, ever.

at least Bill Walton (RIP) got to talk a lot about rivers and the pacific northwest to fill the broadcast

 

[Viet Vet]

1974 NIT quarter-final loss to BC at MSG. UConn, up by 17 with 13 minutes remaining, goes into stall mode (this is before the shot clock and three-point goal). Coach Dee Rowe stays with the stall as BC chips away and wins with two seconds left. This was the last year the NIT final four was nationally televised on CBS, so we missed out on a semi-final vs Utah. It was my senior year at UConn. What a long, long student-chartered bus ride back to Storrs.

 

[MexicoHusky]

Fot me the craziest loss will always be the Darius Rice Miami game. I was speachless... and furious.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Haha that inbounds pass from Tooles. Ugh

Right. I was thinking Taliek inbounded it. But it was Tooles inbounding to Taliek who sorta ran away from the inbound pass like he was trying to start a fast break where all he had to do was catch it and stand there. So I remember everyone blaming Tooles for the bad inbound but I blamed Taliek for not just making sure he secured the pass.

I always put at least 51% of the blame on Taliek. Bad inbound pass, definitely, but as the player receiving the pass, 100% of you energy has to be on running to the ball and shrinking any distance for the defense to come in and steal it. Worst case scenario, you start to stumble and just throw the ball in the air or something.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

I always put at least 51% of the blame on Taliek. Bad inbound pass, definitely, but as the player receiving the pass, 100% of you energy has to be on running to the ball and shrinking any distance for the defense to come in and steal it. Worst case scenario, you start to stumble and just throw the ball in the air or something.

If I remember correctly Caron was at that game. He was playing for the Heat at the time. That was the year before I bought my first house. I was living in an apartment complex at the time and always remember my dad getting up and yelling and walked out slamming the door and went home after Rice hit that shot. My neighbors were like wtf. Lol

 

[UofCT]

Anyone remember Ollie's first big east game against Marquette. We lost in OT. Pretty sure they didn't count one of our baskets in the OT. I recall the boneyard blaming George Blaney for not stepping up and knowing the rules.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

A more recent one is St. John’s during Sanogo’s freshman season. We were obviously the better team with Sanogo on the floor but Coach Hurley decided not to utilize him. Very, very frustrating loss.

That was the first time I questioned whether Danny was the right guy for us. Adama dominated them in the first half and didn’t do anything in the second half. I was livid.

 

[ConnZag3]

Anyone remember Ollie's first big east game against Marquette. We lost in OT. Pretty sure they didn't count one of our baskets in the OT. I recall the boneyard blaming George Blaney for not stepping up and knowing the rules.

I was at this game and clearly remember the refs (pretty sure it was good ol John Cahill in charge) starting OT with the teams facing the wrong direction, which I believe is what led to the no basket.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

I was at this game and clearly remember the refs (pretty sure it was good ol John Cahill in charge) starting OT with the teams facing the wrong direction, which I believe is what led to the no basket.

I currently live up in the Albany area for work. My ex wife had a cousin that was best friends with John Cahill’s son. He would frequently attend summer barbecues with her family. I always told her I was going to tell him he was an awful referee, but I never did. He knew I was a UConn alum and we did chat about college hoops. Still hate him!

 

[dvegas]

We lost Hartford in the Connecticut mutual classic first one year. That was brutal. And lost to Fairfield at New Haven. We get beat by Tate’s relative Tony George. We had Terrance Warren playing play defense on George.

Gut wrenching, the Fairfield game was at the New Haven Coliseum over X-mas break my senior year, good thing they had those cheap draft beers at the coliseum. The Hartford game (@ HCC) was the week between X-mas and NYE and I was there (living in NYC at the time). One of the worst losses of the Calhoun era, that was Hartford's 2nd year in D1

 

[ucp990411]

I expect to win every game so every loss is weird. Don’t think anyone mentioned one of the weirdest. George Mason. Sill makes me want to vomit

 

[Eric K]

Providence vs. Connecticut Box Score (Men), January 17, 2008 | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Providence vs. Connecticut Box Score (Men), January 17, 2008

www.sports-reference.com

More confusing was after that loss, they go on to win 12 of 13, but proceed to lose their last road game at Providence in a clunker.

Providence was .500 that year...

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I currently live up in the Albany area for work. My ex wife had a cousin that was best friends with John Cahill’s son. He would frequently attend summer barbecues with her family. I always told her I was going to tell him he was an awful referee, but I never did. He knew I was a UConn alum and we did chat about college hoops. Still hate him!

He's got a big extended family in Albany / Troy. I knew a bunch of them growing up. Good people.

 

[LStudfellow]

That was the first time I questioned whether Danny was the right guy for us. Adama dominated them in the first half and didn’t do anything in the second half. I was livid.

It was actually more frustrating then that, @StllH8L8ner. Sanogo was dominating in the paint early in the 2nd half too. We went up by 8 with just over 12 minutes left in the game. Dan took Adama out of the game at that point right after Adama had one of his rare assists that year on a basket by The Wrench, then scored his 3rd basket of his own in the half and it was clear to anyone watching that St. John's had no answers for him...

And then Dan never put Sanogo back in the game. We maintained the 8-point lead down to just below the 9-minute mark, but then St. John's started cutting into the lead and we had no answers. They were killing us with their slashing game to the hoop while effectively keeping us playing passive on the offensive end, as we had no one on the floor who was a consistent threat in the low post with Adama on the bench. We ended up losing by 4.

I remember I was literally screaming at the TV and to one of my best friends on the phone as I watched the game at my brother's house about stemming the tide of St. Johns' run by getting Adama back in there, and yet Dan never did.

I felt exactly the same as you after that game... I could not figure out why Dan got so hardheaded about not putting Sanogo back into that game when clearly he was our only guy who scared St. Johns that day. Very weird, and totally, exasperatingly frustrating. In his first few years here there were times Dan showed he could be very hardheaded, and sometimes it was objectively to his and the team's detriment. However, it has obviously all worked out and the only thing I would change about Dan's time as our coach was the premature end of the 2019-2020 season due to COVID as I would have liked to have seen if that team was able to parlay their late season surge into a run in the AAC Tournament, an NCAA Tournament bid and see where we went from there.

 

[Travelman6]

45-44 to Yale is towards the top for me because 44 to a team you should beat by 20 was baffling. Most anemic offensive UConn game ever.

One year BC beat UConn 95 to 71 after Uconn had beaten them like 24 straight times. (Later that season UConn clobbered them 94-51)

Not sure which of those two was more mindblowing.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

He's got a big extended family in Albany / Troy. I knew a bunch of them growing up. Good people.

They are good people. Jim Burr actually lived near us and his wife Andrea was nice too.

He's got a big extended family in Albany / Troy. I knew a bunch of them growing up. Good people.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

The Yale buzzer beater.
The Miami Darius Rice game are extremely annoying.

Not weird, but still pisses me off to this day is UNC in Chapel Hill 04. And obviously last season in Kansas. Both would have been huge wins on their floor.

A win that doesn’t get talked about a ton is the Caron team winning in Arizona in ot.