Disappointing Season

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Realdrwalsh

Realdrwalsh

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Has there ever been a men's NCAA BB team that spent a whole month ranked in the top 25 after starting the season unranked that not only didn't get invited to the NCAA tourney, but also didn't get invited to the NIT? Could the Gophers be first?
 

Realdrwalsh said:
Has there ever been a men's NCAA BB team that spent a whole month ranked in the top 25 after starting the season unranked that not only didn't get invited to the NCAA tourney, but also didn't get invited to the NIT? Could the Gophers be first?
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Tubby Smith's 2010-11 Gopher team did exactly that. Started unranked. Won a bunch of games, got to 16-4, 5-3 and was ranked from late-November through mid-February. Al Nolen then got hurt. They lost 10 of their last 11 games and missed everything.
 

I was going to say...this has happened before for the gophers. There have been other seasons where we've also gotten hot, gotten ranked, and just pissed down our leg to end the year...however I think we made the NIT a time or two.
 

Well, you did find one, but I would argue that this season was significantly worse - that 2010-11 team was 3-12 in big ten games. I can see how we could go from unranked to ranked during our pre big 10 season, just like the football team often does. However, this year, we got to a ranked position because we were doing damage in the Big 10 with wins against ranked Iowa, ranked Michigan, ranked OSU, Purdue, Nebraska, etc..
 

I think you'd have to add a qualifier of something like "and beat four ranked Big Ten teams". Granted, they probably "should have" lost to Iowa and/or Purdue. Pulling both of those wins out, probably used up whatever good karma they were going to be granted for this year.

Either way, it has been a brutal collapse. And it was happening prior to Gabe and Robbins going out, as well.
 


Realdrwalsh said:
Has there ever been a men's NCAA BB team that spent a whole month ranked in the top 25 after starting the season unranked that not only didn't get invited to the NCAA tourney, but also didn't get invited to the NIT? Could the Gophers be first?
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Actually, Pitino has done that (more or less) twice and the end result was (or likely will be in the case of this year) even a bit worse than you described.

2017-18: Team was ranked on the first five polls. Had a 13-3 overall record in the first week of January. The team then proceeded to go 2-13 through the rest of the regular season. Played in the bottom four opening round of the Big Ten tournament and lost that game. Ended up with a losing overall record.

2020-2021: Team was ranked for five weeks on the polls. Had a 10-2 overall record during the first week of January (fewer games this season of course). Proceeded to go 3-11 to date after that. A lock to play in the bottom four opening round of the Big Ten tournament (for the 5th time in 8 years) and maybe will lose that game. Fairly likely to end the season with a losing overall record.

His 2014-15 team, while playing in the bottom four round of the Big Ten tournament and not getting an NCAA or NIT bid, did at least finish with an overall record over .500.

Of course, his 8-23 season in 2015-16 was one for the record books but at least we knew not long after the season commenced that the team was no good. That season we lost to both South Dakota D-1 programs and Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the pre-conference games. If there was any doubt after the 6-6 pre-conference finish, that was settled by the 0-14 conference start.
 
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Realdrwalsh said:
Has there ever been a men's NCAA BB team that spent a whole month ranked in the top 25 after starting the season unranked that not only didn't get invited to the NCAA tourney, but also didn't get invited to the NIT? Could the Gophers be first?
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Tubby 2010-2011
and as noted 17-18 and this year. 3 times in a decade. Amazing!
 

howeda7 said:
Tubby 2010-2011
and as noted 17-18 and this year. 3 times in a decade. Amazing!
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From the original post, the 17-18 team was ranked from the outset, so that is different than the other 2, not necessarily worse/better.

I think don't think it's that uncommon for teams ranked before the season starts to completely miss the miss the NCAA/NIT.
 

Realdrwalsh said:
that 2010-11 team was 3-12 in big ten games. I can see how we could go from unranked to ranked during our pre big 10 season
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That 2010-11 team started the Big Ten season 5-3 with wins over #8 Purdue, @Michigan, Iowa, and Indiana. And, the three Big Ten three losses at that point were all to ranked teams Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. They rose to as high as #13.

Al Nolen got hurt in the Michigan win, and the Gophers went 1-10 the rest of the way.
 



Could be worse...Kentucky is having a way worse year than us. 5 of their 6 recruits from last year would be the best recruit the gophers have had (ranked wise) since Kris Humphries.
 

tmvander said:
Could be worse...Kentucky is having a way worse year than us. 5 of their 6 recruits from last year would be the best recruit the gophers have had (ranked wise) since Kris Humphries.
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They also have recent national championships to reminisce about...Us not so much.
 

Given that we have a few examples of it happening here, I would say to the OPs question that it does happen from time to time around the country but not sure how you would really know it if you were not someone who followed the team fairly closely.

Having said that, it is pretty sad that we can cite multiple examples of it happening here in the fairly recent past. And I would also agree that this season is by far one of the most disappointing considering we have gone from the high point of competing with and beating some of the best teams in the country to the current point where it doesn't look like we can beat anyone with a pulse.

At this point we are just limping (literally and figuratively) to the finish line just trying to get the season over with.
 




tmvander said:
That they do but in terms of a disappointing season I give them the nod.
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Only if you think in terms of one season but anybody can have a bad season now and then. Even North Carolina has had a couple of bad ones this century. Kentucky hasn't had a losing season since 1989 (the year before Rick Pitino took over) so they certainly were due.

But fans of those programs can say "Well, what the hell, these things happen to everyone at least once in awhile. I'm confident that next year will be different." Fans of programs like ours say "third losing season in the last four years. I'm sick of this shit! When is this going to change?"
 

Ope3 said:
From the original post, the 17-18 team was ranked from the outset, so that is different than the other 2, not necessarily worse/better.

I think don't think it's that uncommon for teams ranked before the season starts to completely miss the miss the NCAA/NIT.
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Yes, that one started the season ranked and this one didn't but there are more similarities than differences between the two teams. Both teams were ranked for a month earlier in the season. The ranking started later for this team but this season also started later than that one.
 

cjbfbp said:
Only if you think in terms of one season but anybody can have a bad season now and then. Even North Carolina has had a couple of bad ones this century. Kentucky hasn't had a losing season since 1989 (the year before Rick Pitino took over) so they certainly were due.

But fans of those programs can say "Well, what the hell, these things happen to everyone at least once in awhile. I'm confident that next year will be different." Fans of programs like ours say "third losing season in the last four years. I'm sick of this shit! When is this going to change?"
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Umm your experience with fans from dominant programs like Kentucky and mine are very different. They typically have very little patience for bad seasons and immediately want to fire the coach when things go sideways at all. :)

But yeah, much easier to overlook a one year bump in the road at a place like Kentucky when you have had the kind of success they have enjoyed.
 

If there is one bright spot in this season and Pitino's 8 years here it is Eric Curry fighting through adversity to finish his senior season. That guy has been through so much yet continued to stay positive and wait until he was healthy enough to come back each time. Sad to see a high quality guy like him go after this year and wish him the best.
 

CentralGopher said:
If there is one bright spot in this season and Pitino's 8 years here it is Eric Curry fighting through adversity to finish his senior season. That guy has been through so much yet continued to stay positive and wait until he was healthy enough to come back each time. Sad to see a high quality guy like him go after this year and wish him the best.
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The sad part with Curry is seeing what all the injuries have done to him. He looks nothing like the player he was when he first arrived on the scene. Glad he has been able to stay healthy and on the court this season. He has been through so much during his time here but has kept on fighting to get through it and back on the court.
 

The finishing touch may be the final reminder of the crushing disappointment of this season: we may actually underperform our lowest media expectations!

I looked back at about 7 media predictions for the Gophers' Big Ten finish. They were within a narrow range as everyone I saw predicted them to finish between 10th and 12th. At the time, given Pitino's spring recruiting, 12th seemed like a major insult.

Well, as it turns out, we could finish 13th. The Gophers host Rutgers this weekend and Northwestern hosts Nebraska. I'd say most of us probably believe that Northwestern has a better chance of winning theirs than we do of winning ours. If that happens, the Gophers will finish with a 6-14 conference record while Northwestern will finish at 6-13 with a win against the Gophers in their lone matchup. That would be Pitino's second 13th place finish with the prior one being in his historical 8-23 season (hard to believe that Rutgers was actually worse that year).
 

These don't precisely fit the criteria but:

2016-17 Indiana opened the season ranked #11 and made it up to #3 before falling out of the rankings, losing in the first round of the NIT, and Tom Crean getting fired.

2014-15 Nebraska was ranked #21 going into the season after making the NCAA tournament the year before, but lost a non-conference game early, and were then unranked for most of the season, closed out on a 9 game losing streak, and did not make the NIT

1997-98 Iowa started out at #15 and remained ranked in the top 25 until early February, and ended their season with a first round NIT loss.

2009-10 North Carolina started the season ranked #6 after their 2009 national championship, lost a few non-conference games, but retained a top 10 ranking at the start of conference play, then dropped out of the top 25 after a 1-3 start, and later lost to Dayton in the NIT championship game.

2012-13 Kentucky opened at #3 coming off of winning the 2012 national championship, but dropped out of the top 25 after a 3-3 start to the season, and eventually lost as a 1 seed in the first round of the NIT. I actually remember this game ended up being a home game for their opponent Robert Morris, because Kentucky's court was being used for tournament games.

2011-12 Arizona opened at #16 but fell out of the rankings midway through non-conference play, yet still managed to win 23 games in a season in which they lost in the first round of the NIT.

2015-16 UCLA got up to #25 at the start of conference play, then went 6-12 and finished with a sub .500 record and no postseason appearance.

The Indiana, Iowa, and UCLA examples are probably the most relevant, as far as teams that started ranked and remained ranked for awhile, or even moved up in the rankings from where they started, but had lackluster finishes. I'm sure there are more examples, but these are just a few that came from memory and some digging around Wikipedia.
 

The reason I initially included the criterion of not starting the season ranked, but then being ranked for a month, is because I feel like the fall from that is worse than starting the season ranked and then not getting invited. My thinking is that a team like Duke is always going to start the year ranked, even if they are actually terrible, so it might take a month to get them out of the AP top 25, whereas playing well enough to earn a spot in the top 25, then somehow just turning into garbage seems worse to me. Kind of like Notre Dame in football - they always start in the top 10, so they never fall below 60 despite how bad they are.
Either way, I'm very disappointed. As a 38 year (my whole life) season ticket holder, I'm mad that I didn't get to see the Michigan and Iowa games in person, and I'm upset by another wasted year.
Any opinions on John Belein as the next coach? Ryan Saunders? McDermott after Creighton cans him?
 

Realdrwalsh said:
The reason I initially included the criterion of not starting the season ranked, but then being ranked for a month, is because I feel like the fall from that is worse than starting the season ranked and then not getting invited. My thinking is that a team like Duke is always going to start the year ranked, even if they are actually terrible, so it might take a month to get them out of the AP top 25, whereas playing well enough to earn a spot in the top 25, then somehow just turning into garbage seems worse to me. Kind of like Notre Dame in football - they always start in the top 10, so they never fall below 60 despite how bad they are.
Either way, I'm very disappointed. As a 38 year (my whole life) season ticket holder, I'm mad that I didn't get to see the Michigan and Iowa games in person, and I'm upset by another wasted year.
Any opinions on John Belein as the next coach? Ryan Saunders? McDermott after Creighton cans him?
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I'd love Belein if he'd take the job. There are some concerns with age, but there are plenty of coaches who are just as old that are still great coaches.

Ryan Saunders. That's a big no for me. His only real accomplishment is being Flip's kid. He seems like a really nice guy and I'd love for him to go elsewhere and pad his resume. However, I don't think he has shown anything to suggest he is a good coach. I'm in the minority in that I think Flip was an average coach (at best). He happened to be the coach of the Wolves when he landed one of the greatest players of all time and didn't do a ton. It's just that "didn't do a ton" was such a drastic improvement for the franchise, people liked Flip.

McDermott. I'd love him as a coach. Great coach. I don't think the U would hire him. I think there is a better chance they'd hire Kimani Young (convicted drug dealer) than McDermott.
 

howeda7 said:
Tubby 2010-2011
and as noted 17-18 and this year. 3 times in a decade. Amazing!
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Tubby lost Nolen in 2010-11 after they had beaten North Carolina earlier in the year and Mbakwe in 2011-12. He also lost Royce White in 2008-09....which was probably even bigger than the other two for the future of his program.
 

Pandemic and Gopher basketball! Cherry on top!
 


builtbadgers said:
For me in many ways to not finish top 5 with this roster and to finish 13th is the most disappointing season i can remember.To see what Painter got out of his roster is a example of what coaching does.
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Man, I would trade Minnesota's roster to Purdue for its roster all day every day.

Painter is coaching 2-4 future NBA players.

I'd love it if they threw in Painter in the trade, that would be great. The guy can coach.
 
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