How the heck did KU NOT win the title?
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Just for fun-since many may have spare time this week.
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I saw the same list. Pretty depressing, Of course, I think the biggest how the heck didn’t we win the title in my 30 years of KU fandom was in 1997, which didn’t quite fit the since 2000 parameter of his article.
I’d have put the 03 team on top of the list instead of 02 because I thought Maryland was a more formidable foe than Syracuse.
1986 deserves mention as well.
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The VCU was tough on me. I took my son over to San Antonio for the Richmond Game which was fun. Skipped the VCU game because we were getting the house ready for a bunch of guests heading our way for the Houston final four.
Next to that was losing to Arizona when we had Pierce and LaFrenz playing together. At least Arizona went on to win it all for Lute.
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03 is a pretty easy one to put #1 on the list since we were actually in the title game and playing well. The 2011 VCU loss to me is obviously #2. We were amazing all year for starters. Then we get a f*cking play-in game winner in the Elite 8 to go to the Final 4. A Final 4 that was maybe the weakest since 2000 and we blow it. That was the dream scenario and it didn’t work out. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about the VCU game often. Even though the Michigan loss in 2013 was far worse feeling in the moment the VCU game hurts more for me as time goes on as I was 100% sure we were going to cut down the nets.
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2003 is my third. At the time I lived in SoCal and went to the KU - Duke game at the Pond.
I took my time looking into flights from LA and the price was outrageous. I passed on the final four because of that and had been to the SuperDome for a football game- knew the seats would be terrible unless you spent a fortune for seats close in.
So two of these three are on my list because was at games late in the tourney. Luckily I got smart and flew my dad in for the 2008 games in San Antonio. He was a HUGE KU fan and we got to attend those together.
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SB Nation is an ingenious website. By every form of hook and crook, they have managed to fool lots of folks into thinking they were the real deal. But, they’re not. They are a website that puts up college basketball blogs, writes some fluff on each team, and attempts to generate hits by writing ignorant steaming piles of horse s*it such as the “rub it in KU’s face” story you reference. They have no affiliation to KU at all, yet they provide a KU bb website where no nothings write tripe about a team they know nothing about. They do the same thing with a slew of other teams. If there was an internet death penalty, and I was King Poobah…off with their heads!!! Sorry…I get a little steamed with some of their posts…lol.
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The 2003 loss to Carmelo and the Orange was the most painful for me. I really loved that team and felt we were easily the best team in that FF.
McNamara was on fire from 3, and Anthony just found ways to beat us, including dishing out a season-high seven assists because his back was bothering him and the Jayhawk defense swarmed him when he caught the ball.
I’ve never liked Carmelo Anthony since that game.
I’ve been getting a kick out of the floundering Knicks just because of Carmelo. He is a great scorer, but too much ball hog for me. He doesn’t play enough team ball to win a championship in the NBA, and never will. I won’t cry a single tear on that.
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They all not only hurt but absolutely suck. As well we should not forget TexAss Western. That one was over the top for me as a young kid. JoJo was in !!! I was as pi$$ed as I ever remember. The BP is way up just on the thought.
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1957 is also outside the parameters of the article, but would be at the top. I wasn’t around then, but age improves my appreciation of historical occurrences outside the realm of my personal experience.
Triple overtime? Wilt freakin’ Chamberlain? From what I’ve read of his dominance in college, there’s no way KU shouldn’t have won everything, all the time. What a heart breaker.
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I must disagree about Carmelo and Syracuse beating us in 2003. We lost that game at the FT line.
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@brooksmd I agree, still don’t like him, but Cole is doing great on that team!
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@brooksmd Yes, 12 of 30. Missed 18 free throws and lost by 3 points. Just hitting 50% would have tied. Horrible.
That game taught me that free throws aren’t free. They are actually rather costly. Probably worth practicing.
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True dat. And how many of those were the front end of a 1-and-1?
I remember throwing a pillow at my tv. Luckily it was only a pillow.
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Interestingly enough, some one did an analysis of the missed free throws a while back and KU got a fair amount of rebounds off the missed free throws that resulted in points, so the missed free throws did not hurt KU as much as it would appear; I was surprised too. I will try too find the story and post a link.
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@JayHawkFanToo I have referenced that article in the past and people have disputed the facts. I could not find the article. I recall that the conclusion was that we were not beaten by missed free throws…we were beaten by 3 pt shooting.
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@joeloveshawks The only thing about the VCU game is that I never thought we were going to win that game. The Michigan game hurts me worse as we outplayed them for 37 1/2 minutes only to implode the last 2 1/2.
