Was UK '15 the biggest choke ever as an undefeated team in the Tourney?
- Thread starter Heel Gyeah
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Who are the other contenders?
79 Indiana State. Beaten by a better Mich. State team.
91 UNLV. Loaded team. Played Duke a second consecutive season in the FF.
14 Wichita State. I don't know that they were a prohibitive national title favorite, or considered that by anyone.
Seems like I missed another 70's team, in 76 or 77. Not sure though.
I think 2015 Kentucky takes this. How many McD's AA's do they have? How many in the media kiss Calipari's A$$ daily and anoint him as the greatest thing since Wonderbread? Huge favorite to win title. Some moron named Brown said they could "win in the NBA".
79 Indiana State. Beaten by a better Mich. State team.
91 UNLV. Loaded team. Played Duke a second consecutive season in the FF.
14 Wichita State. I don't know that they were a prohibitive national title favorite, or considered that by anyone.
Seems like I missed another 70's team, in 76 or 77. Not sure though.
I think 2015 Kentucky takes this. How many McD's AA's do they have? How many in the media kiss Calipari's A$$ daily and anoint him as the greatest thing since Wonderbread? Huge favorite to win title. Some moron named Brown said they could "win in the NBA".
The most obvious difference between UK and the other 3 you named are that they were not in a Major conference. Strenght of matters a great deal, both in evaluating just how good you are and in preparing you for the rigors of the NCAA tournament.Originally posted by Firefly1984:
Who are the other contenders?
79 Indiana State. Beaten by a better Mich. State team.
91 UNLV. Loaded team. Played Duke a second consecutive season in the FF.
14 Wichita State. I don't know that they were a prohibitive national title favorite, or considered that by anyone.
Seems like I missed another 70's team, in 76 or 77. Not sure though.
I think 2015 Kentucky takes this. How many McD's AA's do they have? How many in the media kiss Calipari's A$$ daily and anoint him as the greatest thing since Wonderbread? Huge favorite to win title. Some moron named Brown said they could "win in the NBA".
What is the great difference between IU in '76 nd UK in '15. IU was in 1 of the 2 toughest leagues in the 1970s and UK was in the weakest Major conference in 2015.
Yeah, but I didn't have them in a bracket to go all the way like UK.
And, since that was Roy's 1st year, we didn't have the #1 spot
'91 UNLV team tanked the final with dook!!
Apologies to UK but this was undoubtedly the biggest fail by an overwhelming favorite. The other teams you mentioned had played cream puff schedules and nobody really thought they would finish. Everybody and their sister were taking UK over the field.
Apologies to UK but this was undoubtedly the biggest fail by an overwhelming favorite. The other teams you mentioned had played cream puff schedules and nobody really thought they would finish. Everybody and their sister were taking UK over the field.
What kind of league do you think UNLV played in during the 1990-91 season? There was no MWC. They weren't in the WAC. They were in the Big West. It had basketball power houses such as Fresno St, Fullerton St, Long Beach St, San Jose St, UC-Irvine, UC-Santa Barabara, Utah St, Pacific.
Big West basketball in 1991 was so weak it would make SEC basketball in 2015 seem like the toughest league in history.
If the '90-91 UNLV team had played in the ACC, meaning a 16 game double round robin, it would not have finished league play no better than 14-2 and probably would have lost 3, and easily could have lost 4.
Maybe they were too busy thinking about their bonuses and lost focus? Link below is from a very trustworthy news source 
This sucks for them
This sucks for them
Considering how talent ladened this Kentucky team was, then I'd say it was the biggest . . most of America thought these guys would win the Title and nobody was going to be even close to them.
This team had it all and couldn't finish . . it may be a long time before you see another team with this much quality talent on it in college ball again.
This team had it all and couldn't finish . . it may be a long time before you see another team with this much quality talent on it in college ball again.
And UNLV took care of business, beating its conference competition by an average of 29.6 points per game.
UNLV also played and beat Michigan State (RPI 18) by 20 points, Princeton (RPI 21) by 34 points, Florida State (RPI 30) by 32 points, Rutgers (RPI 31) by 42 points, and Arkansas (RPI 2) by 7 points. It's not as if they didn't prove their mettle during their OOC matchups.
That team was ridiculous. I used to stay up well past midnight just to watch them play. Their athleticism was off the charts, and they showed no mercy to their competition. Despite my disdain for the dookies, that was one of the greatest upsets of all time and certainly of an undefeated team IMO.
Yes, they were and I used to do the same. I loved watching that UNLV team. Isn't that the year the duke "flop" started? I remember Greg Anthony fouling out of that game on a very questionable charge call (imagine that) with about 3 minutes to go and UNLV leading.
I'll always consider our '98 team as the all time choke for UNC .No way in hell they should've lost to freaking Utah.Originally posted by parheel:
I'll be unbiased here and go with our 2008 team. We got waxed by Kansas, and this was a team that was Championship or Bust the entire year. I'd say we choked pretty bad in '08. An all time choke? Maybe, maybe not. Good thing 2009 happened.
Yes! They saw Roy put a KU sticker in his pocket and then the louder contingent of the team voiced their disgust while the reasonable contingent of the team couldn't care less
I don't think this was a choke job. Choking would have been in the first or second rounds. They were a good team, a very good team. It proves skill is needed but luck as well to win the NC and this year and last year the luck was not with them. Same as Duke, they are a very good team but luck has put them in this situation of the NC game this year. In short, more times than not the best team does not win the NC.
Choke? That would imply Wisconsin was some chump team with about as much a chance to win as some HS team. Sorry, I don't think people are giving them enough credit. They won because they were the better team. Would they win 3 out of 5? Who knows, but they won the only one that matters and if/when they beat dook NO ONE can say they didn't deserve the title. Hands down the toughest road of anyone in the Final Four.
Personally I hope they beat dook like a red headed step child tonight.
Personally I hope they beat dook like a red headed step child tonight.
I don't think they choked...they got exposed. I think they were the 3rd, maybe 4th best team in the tourney. The schedule they played gave them a false sense of how great they were...the NCAA's showed the truth.
Kaintuck wouldn't have won the ACC.
Kaintuck wouldn't have won the ACC.
UK was not that good this year. They are a good team and deserved a one seed but they were not great. They played a pretty easy schedule and still almost lost about 6 games in the SEC. They lost to another #1 seed. I was glad that they lost, of course, but this was not a choke.
It's mainly a response to those claiming this was the best team ever assembled.Even I didn't think UK would lose early in the season until they survided a scare vs lowly LSU..Realisticly JC,with that much talent your boys should've dominated like Uconn womens team has done the past two years.
Yes. But why ask a UK fan about it, they are too busy trying to find buyers for their matched set of 40-0 t-shirts! I thought it was one of the funniest thing I had read the last time they printed them (or tattooed it) but to have this happen twice...Priceless!
Love the point about Wiscy not even winning the tourney...game-set-match!
Heels are Family!
Love the point about Wiscy not even winning the tourney...game-set-match!
Heels are Family!
totally agree....they raked winslow and oakafor the entire game without any calls, putting them in foul trouble. In fact, the refs swallowed the whistle for the out of bounds play.....the wiscy player hit winslow in the head TWICE.....
could have saved everyone a lot of trouble had they gone ahead and called that foul....
UK probably would have won the championship if they had played in the ACC. They would have been challenged many times in the conference season. They couldn't sleep walk through the acc. Against Wisky they were slow, they weren't really hustling on defense.
Re: Was UK '15 the biggest choke ever as an undefeated team in the Tourney?
UNC-75 posted on 4/6/2015...
I don't think this was a choke job. Choking would have been in the first or second rounds. They were a good team, a very good team. It proves skill is needed but luck as well to win the NC and this year and last year the luck was not with them. Same as Duke, they are a very good team but luck has put them in this situation of the NC game this year. In short, more times than not the best team does not win the NC.
^^^ Yeah, I can not consider a team to have choked that makes it to the final 4. I have watched to many NCAATs over the years to believe that once in the final 4 ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AND USUALLY DOES ! So no, I can't call that a choke, I call it what happens in the final 4.
For me, maybe it is just me, I have alweays considered the mark for a great season to be reaching the final 4, for me that is the goal I want to see every year, final 4. I love a Natty but crazy stuff happens once the final 4 is reached and any team in the final 4 is playing most times at their best. As Ky just found out again, any team can be beat, I don;t care how many Micky Ds you have and we have seen that with some of our own teams as well.
UNC-75 posted on 4/6/2015...
I don't think this was a choke job. Choking would have been in the first or second rounds. They were a good team, a very good team. It proves skill is needed but luck as well to win the NC and this year and last year the luck was not with them. Same as Duke, they are a very good team but luck has put them in this situation of the NC game this year. In short, more times than not the best team does not win the NC.
^^^ Yeah, I can not consider a team to have choked that makes it to the final 4. I have watched to many NCAATs over the years to believe that once in the final 4 ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AND USUALLY DOES ! So no, I can't call that a choke, I call it what happens in the final 4.
For me, maybe it is just me, I have alweays considered the mark for a great season to be reaching the final 4, for me that is the goal I want to see every year, final 4. I love a Natty but crazy stuff happens once the final 4 is reached and any team in the final 4 is playing most times at their best. As Ky just found out again, any team can be beat, I don;t care how many Micky Ds you have and we have seen that with some of our own teams as well.
This may not be the greatest choke of all time, but I'd probably put the 97 Kansas Jayhawks in the top 5. Jacque Vaughn, Jerod Hasse, Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz, Scott Pollard, Ray Robertson, and Billy Thomas. That team was stacked. They were 34-1 going into the Sweet 16 and lost to eventual national champ, Arizona. UNLV and Kentucky at least made it to the FF. Arizona was only 21-9 going into the game, but they certainly caught fire at the right time.
This UK team can lead those 2 categories as well
It's a choke when the now-perennial pre-season 40-0 teams of UK don't actually go 40-0.
Weber State too.Originally posted by mikeirbyusa:
By those standards-losing to Lehigh and Mercer in the 1st round were much bigger joke jobs.
UK lost in the final four, I wouldn't say that was a choke job. As a UK fan it was definitely a disappointment, as I think they should've beaten beaten Wisconsin.
The collective UK fanbase didn't think they could beat an NBA team, thats silly. Also UK didn't almost lose 6 games in the SEC, not that it really matters.
UK was the best team all year, they came up short in the tournament, it happens.
The collective UK fanbase didn't think they could beat an NBA team, thats silly. Also UK didn't almost lose 6 games in the SEC, not that it really matters.
UK was the best team all year, they came up short in the tournament, it happens.
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