What's the proudest/most satisfied you've been as a fan after a loss?

[RichZ]

Kansas without Ricky & Kirk.

 

[Calhoun's Court]

Kansas game at HCC was the loudest I have ever heard that building.

Also the back to back games Syracuse-Georgetown at the HCC 89-90 was deafening

With those wins we kicked the door down and took our seat at the table of the Big East. And since then not Suspensions, Conference Realignment and the retirement of our leader and HOF Coach could deter us from our Elite Status as a program.

 

[huskyharry]

Piggybacking off that other thread, I've generally found that as a sports fan, I sometimes gain more respect/admiration for a team in defeat than I ever could in victory. Unfortunately, most of the time it seems that those spirited efforts in defeat are marred by all sorts of other factors. I know I wouldn't have thought any less of this most recent UConn team if they had lost somewhere along the way, and I'm sure many of you feel the same way.

Personally speaking, maybe it's recency bias coming into play, but I've never been more satisfied with the efforts of a UConn team than after the heartbreaking double OT loss to Georgetown last year. It wasn't a particularly well-played game, but I'll always remember sitting in Gampel, watching them fall behind by double digits as Georgetown shot the lights out in the second half, and thinking there was no way we'd make a game of it. By that point in the season, the team was basically limping towards the finish line. Calhoun was playing with an injured wrist, Napier had just badly turned his ankle, Wolf had been suspended leaving us with no post depth whatsoever, and guys like Nolan weren't quite ready to contribute yet. But from about the ten minute mark in the second half forward, and unit consisting of Napier, Boatright, Calhoun, Daniels, and Giffey simply poured their guts out and willed us back into the game before a few costly mistakes hurt us late in double overtime. Live, it was remarkable to watch - here were a group of kids playing at a considerable height and girth disadvantage clawing their way back into the game through sheer determination and hustle. And they had absolutely nothing to play for. From that point forward, I knew we would never see a more inspiring core of Huskies again.

I'm curious to hear what others think on this.

Before I read your post, I was thinking of this game as well. Very loveable team with hard-working kids who had had a variety of bad things happen to them but were struggling hard to overcome. A win would have been better, but having no shot at the post season, there was no extra downside from the loss.

The problem with the NCAA tourney losses is that the concurrent disappointment at knowing the season is over and the sense of loss about what could have been. As illustrated this year, if we had lost to St. Joe's the end result would have been far far away from what happened. If we beat UNC that year, we may have gone to the final four. If we beat UCLA, we had a good shot at winning it all etc.
The problem with the 6 OT game was that I thought we should have won. We were in a position to win in most of the overtimes but Syrabuse came back to tie. In the last OT, I have always thought that a chance in defensive strategy would have served us well. Put Mandeldove in the middle of a zone and Harris would not have been able to abuse us like he did. While it is true that they were draining threes earlier on, by the 6th OT, their shooters were tired and IMHO a zone would have been more effective.

 

[J187Money]

This is the one for me. Caron is one my favorite Huskies of all time probably because of how he played in this game. That, and my perception of how much he wanted it for JC. I bet JC gets a bunch of calls today (father's day) including one from Caron.

Caron is from Racine, WI which is where I lived from 5-13. My brother went to his HS. Always rooted for him.

 

[Deepster]

Definitely the 1998 game in Greensboro against UNC. The "neutral" court where they handed out Tarheel blue pompoms at the door. Of course, hindsight is 20-20, but I'll always feel like that was where we stopped acting like Chicken Little Red Sox fans, waiting for the other shoe to fall, and started acting like people better start respecting us.