Worst performance since ... ?

[Vowelguy]

Uconn has a long, amazing tradition of not losing to mediocre/bad teams. Yesterday's game marks the first time a non top 50 team got within 5 points since ... ?

 

[Frenchy]

So What? how many of us had very good days at work or at whatever we do the past 842 days without a mishap because it has been that long since Uconn WBB drop the ball. Tulane was just a misstep not a crash!!

 

[Vowelguy]

So What?

I merely made an observation.

 

[tomcat]

I suppose it's since the loss to St. John's years ago. I also recall that one of the famous UConn teams of yesteryear was, IIRC, an undefeated season and was beating everyone by 40+ points. They went in to, I think, West Virginia or Virginia Tech. In any case, the opponent was a decent but not great team that played a slowdown game that day and UConn won by only 7 or 9 points in a eal cliffhangr..

 

[Gus Mahler]

I suppose it's since the loss to St. John's years ago. I also recall that one of the famous UConn teams of yesteryear was, IIRC, an undefeated season and was beating everyone by 40+ points. They went in to, I think, West Virginia or Virginia Tech. In any case, the opponent was a decent but not great team that played a slowdown game that day and UConn won by only 7 or 9 points in a eal cliffhangr..

2002, I think.

 

[tomcat]

I think so. With the hint you provided, I looked it up and it was at VA Tech, a 59-50 win.

 

[Longtime fan]

Uconn has a long, amazing tradition of not losing to mediocre/bad teams. Yesterday's game marks the first time a non top 50 team got within 5 points since ... ?

Had Tulane won, which victory they would have earned and been entitled to enjoy, it would not have been so bad. It would have been program -defining for a fine University. I would prefer losing to them than to a university who has been crafting their entire existence to defeat UCONN, such as South Carolina, Baylor or Maryland. It would be so much more magical for a group of hard-working kids to win this, than a boat-load of top HS all americans. Kind of like Hoosiers.

Anyway....we hung on.

 

[Glenn]

We and led for the full game--so not a bad outcome. But if we had lost it would have been our worst loss since 1996 probably, when we we lost to a mediocre Syracuse team. Since then we have never lost to a team that did not make the NCAA tournamen the last loss to a team that finished the season outside the top 25 was in 2004 against Arizona state. (our 2012 loss to st. Johns was not a real bad loss. They were a team that was not ranked at the time but at the end of the year was top 15).

 

[Sonny44]

St. John's.

 

[Adesmar123]

since Warren Beatty in Ishtar

 

[Plebe]

I think so. With the hint you provided, I looked it up and it was at VA Tech, a 59-50 win.

The 2002 Virginia Tech game was the one that went through my mind as I was watching yesterday's game. I don't think there's any footage of that game, but from what I gather it was just cold, cold shooting in Blacksburg that day. If VaTech had a couple hot shooters like Tulane did yesterday, they could've been the first to 60 and won.

 

[ctfjr]

Since Custer took a shortcut through the Big Horn?

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I suppose it's since the loss to St. John's years ago. I also recall that one of the famous UConn teams of yesteryear was, IIRC, an undefeated season and was beating everyone by 40+ points. They went in to, I think, West Virginia or Virginia Tech. In any case, the opponent was a decent but not great team that played a slowdown game that day and UConn won by only 7 or 9 points in a eal cliffhangr..

St. John's was supposedly the last "unranked" team UConn lost to. But that is rather misleading, since subsequently St. John's was ranked in the Top 25, and remained there, if memory serves. So it really was a top team, but just hadn't received the recognition yet.

We're seeing AAC teams play UConn increasingly tough. This comes after Temple scored 51 points on UConn in the second half of their loss. Temple just knocked off South Florida, to take sole possession of second place in the conference. Last year, USF played UConn tougher than any team in the regular season schedule. And now we see a very scrappy Tulane team go the distance.

Seems as though UConn is stimulating the development of the entire conference's women's basketball system. Just as UConn did with the Big East.

But watch out on Wednesday. Temple will come in loaded for bear! With Nurse out, with KLS still under the weather, and Saniya and Crystal not making up the difference, it could be a very, very tough game.

 

[Vowelguy]

Single-digit wins/losses vs unranked teams or double-digit loss:
2016-17 -- W over Tulane, 63-60
2012-13 -- W over St Johns, 71-65
2011-12 -- L to St Johns
2005-06 -- W over W Va, 50-44
2005-06 -- W over W Va, 58-50
2004-05 -- L to Arizona St, 61-50
2004-05 -- W over USF in OT

Double-digit losses vs ranked:
2011-12 -- L to #3 ND, 72-59
2010-11 -- L to #9 Stanford, 71-59
2006-07 -- L to #12 LSU, 73-50
2005-06 -- L to #7 UNC, 77-54
2004-05 -- L to #1 Stanford, 76-59
2004-05 -- L to #11 Rutgers, 76-62
2004-05 -- L to #10 Mich St, 67-51

I'll add to it more later, but kinda remarkable.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

I think so. With the hint you provided, I looked it up and it was at VA Tech, a 59-50 win.

That was the game with the infamous phantom intentional foul call on Diana with the game on the line.
I forget who the ref was.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Single-digit wins/losses vs unranked teams or double-digit loss:
2016-17 -- W over Tulane, 63-60
2012-13 -- W over St Johns, 71-65
2011-12 -- L to St Johns
2005-06 -- W over W Va, 50-44
2005-06 -- W over W Va, 58-50
2004-05 -- L to Arizona St, 61-50
2004-05 -- W over USF in OT

Double-digit losses vs ranked:
2011-12 -- L to #3 ND, 72-59
2010-11 -- L to #9 Stanford, 71-59
2006-07 -- L to #12 LSU, 73-50
2005-06 -- L to #7 UNC, 77-54
2004-05 -- L to #1 Stanford, 76-59
2004-05 -- L to #11 Rutgers, 76-62
2004-05 -- L to #10 Mich St, 67-51

I'll add to it more later, but kinda remarkable.

Three of those double-digit losses to ranked teams, and the one (real) loss to an unranked team came in the year after Diana Taurasi left UConn. That was the year UConn lost eight games, the low for the program in about two decades. Amazing that there have been just four double-digit losses to anyone in the past twelve years!