Not as Bad as Illinois 2002 But....

pretty damn painful. It's tough to blow a potential "play your way in" game at home. Maybe FOT can tell us how many "play your way in" games Tubby has won through the years.

I can't blame the refs for the loss but I did say to a friend of mine at half time that Hightower had been too quiet and he would find a way to take over the game in the second half. Unfortunately, I was right.

jamiche said:

Maybe FOT can tell us how many "play your way in" games Tubby has won through the years.

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Wouldn't those all have been in mid-January?

jamiche said:

It's tough to blow a potential "play your way in" game at home.

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And the selection committee will probably penalize us for that. They'll say that we had our chance to cement a bid and blew it.

jamiche said:

pretty damn painful. It's tough to blow a potential "play your way in" game at home. Maybe FOT can tell us how many "play your way in" games Tubby has won through the years.

I can't blame the refs for the loss but I did say to a friend of mine at half time that Hightower had been too quiet and he would find a way to take over the game in the second half. Unfortunately, I was right.

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12 point lead, against and average Michigan team? Gophs controlled most of the game.

More painful.

The way it finished was more heartbreaking in the Ill game. But this, in every other way, is worse than the Illinois loss. We had the game in control and we were playing a team that we should be able to handle. When we played Illinois in 2002 they were a superior team and we were attempting to pull an upset. Here we just locked up with 8 minutes to go and possibly blew an NCAA trip. The only way this isn't worse than the Illinois game in 2002 is if we somehow still get in the tourney.

jamiche said:

pretty damn painful. It's tough to blow a potential "play your way in" game at home. Maybe FOT can tell us how many "play your way in" games Tubby has won through the years.

I can't blame the refs for the loss but I did say to a friend of mine at half time that Hightower had been too quiet and he would find a way to take over the game in the second half. Unfortunately, I was right.

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Not sure what PYWI game means?

Tulsa made NCAA on the strength of its regular season (MC) titles in 1994 and 1995.

Ditto Georgia made NCAA on regular season play in 1996 and 1997.

UK was pretty much a lock for NCAA every year from 1998 through 2007.

So I'd say 0 so far.

Today was a bad L.

TruthTeller said:

12 point lead, against and average Michigan team? Gophs controlled most of the game.

More painful.

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Sorry, but today's loss was nowhere near as bad as the 2002 loss to Illinois. Not even close. Purely from a standpoint of making the tournament, it might be close. That 2002 game was a chance to play our way in, but with very little opportunity if we didn't. It was against a ranked team and we needed a signature win. If we won we were in if we lost, we were out unless we won two BTT games including beating that same Illinois team in what was basically a road game in the BTT. So for all intents and purposes that was a MUST win game. Today was not. If we win one BTT game, it is highly likely we will still make it. And whoever we play will not be nearly as difficult as beating a top 20 Illinois team in Chicago was.

But regardless of that, the 2002 game was so much more important to the program then this is. We were two years removed from our post-season ban. Monson was considered to be doing a great job in his 3rd season given what he was working under. If we win that game, we make the tournament faster then anyone would have thought at the depths of the scandal. Maybe Rickert stays one or two more years. Maybe Humpries actually commits right away and is less of an ass while he's here. The whole direction of the program likely changed on that day. I wrote when Monson was fired that that game was his 'Water loo', much as the Michigan football game in 2003 was Mason's.

In comparison with this, today's game was not nearly such a big deal. Yes, it would have been nice to basically seal our first NCAA birth with Tubby. But we still have a very realistic chance to do so. And even if we do not, it will not change the extremely positive upward direction of this program or the high optimimism for next season. That 2002 game was the most painful regular season loss I can remember. And even 7 years later it looms huge. I think there is a chance Monson might still be the coach today if we win that game. (I know that may not be a good thing, but nevertheless.) Today was just a bad loss, but we will get over it.