The Black Swan is the 1989 Flying Illini

[PoppyHart]

I've gone through the #1 seeds since 1985. There are 116 #1 seeds over the 29 years.

1. 43 teams won both the outright conference regular season AND the conference tourney
2. 36 teams won ONLY the outright conference regular season
3. 13 teams won ONLY the conference tournament
4. 11 teams tied for the conference regular season AND won the conference tourney
5. 8 teams ONLY tied for the conference regular season

That leaves 5 teams:
1993: Michigan - neither won nor tied the reg. season or the (non-existent) conf. tourney, but Illinois was also a #1 seed
2003: Texas - neither won nor tied either, but conference tourney winner Oklahoma was a #1 seed as well
2009: Pitt and UCONN - neither won nor tied either, but regular season and tourney winner Louisville was also a #1 seed

1989: Illinois did not win or tie the regular season or the (non-existent) conference tourney, and no other Big 10 team was a #1 seed.

Notes:
- The Pac-10 had no conference tourney in 1985 and 1986 and from 1991 to 2001
- The Big 10 had no conference tourney prior to 1998
- Several conferences (e.g. Big East, SEC, Conference USA) had a multi-division format at various times. If a team won their division outright, I credited it with an outright title.

 

[jncuse]

great research

 

[thebigeast44]

To this day, I don't feel bad that we lost that game to Illinois in 1989. Disappointed yes - but that was a battle of 2 great teams against each other -could have gone either way.

 

[690West]

Great research. I'm curious who won the big ten in 1989 over Illinois but didnt get a 1 seed. I'll have to look it up later

 

[690West]

Great research. I'm curious who won the big ten in 1989 over Illinois but didnt get a 1 seed. I'll have to look it up later

Looks like it was Indiana who was the 2 seed. And Michigan as the 3 seed won it all

 

[RF2044]

Great reference in the title, Poppy!

 

[Cuse_1999]

Good research, but the climate is different now because of the mega conferences and unbalanced conference schedules.

I remember seeing the head of the Selection Committee referencing unbalanced conference schedules when Team A finished 2 games above Team B in the conference but Team B got a higher seed.

 

[PoppyHart]

Legend

Bold = Outright Reg. Season Only
Italics = Conf. Tourney Only
Bold italics = Reg. Season + Conf. Tourney
(T) = Tied for Reg. Season

 

[SWC75]

And they beat our best team.

 

[LennX6]

View attachment 8195

Legend

Bold = Outright Reg. Season Only
Italics = Conf. Tourney Only
Bold italics = Reg. Season + Conf. Tourney
(T) = Tied for Reg. Season

So, our first #1 seed was 2010? Then the next 2 yrs later. And on our way to one this year.
Not too shabby.
I lived thru the late '80s and it just hit me looking at this, they were never a #1.
'89 and '91 I think we were #2's.

 

[LennX6]

And they beat our best team.

Interesting looking back at Matt Roe's numbers.
Almost 50% from 2 and 3. He'd be on magazine covers in today's game.

 

[BuffOrange]

Looks like it was Indiana who was the 2 seed. And Michigan as the 3 seed won it all

I know Illinois beat Michigan twice that year before the F4 game...did they sweep Indiana as well?
Texas swept Oklahoma in '03..
L'ville did not have to go to either Pitt or Uconn in '09...iirc they were considered the weakest of the 3 prior to the BET and needed to win it.

 

[SWC75]

So, our first #1 seed was 2010? Then the next 2 yrs later. And on our way to one this year.
Not too shabby.
I lived thru the late '80s and it just hit me looking at this, they were never a #1.
'89 and '91 I think we were #2's.

We were a #1 in 1980.

Seedings began in 1979. SU's seeds since then:

1979 4
1980 1
1983 6
1984 3
1985 7
1986 2
1987 2
1988 3
1989 2
1990 2
1991 2
1992 6
1994 4
1995 7
1996 4
1998 5
1999 8
2000 4
2001 5
2003 3
2004 5
2005 4
2006 5
2009 3
2010 1
2011 3
2012 1
2013 4

 

[LennX6]

We were a #1 in 1980.

Ah yes, 3 of my top 5 SU Heartbreaks came that season. That was our first year in the rarified air of being ranked in the top 5.
This year was reminding me of that, of the wild emotional swings like Pitt last week and BC this week.
3 days after the closing of Manley, we pulled a win out of our hamstrings at Alumni Hall St Johns, on a last second dish and drive (and probably an O-foul with Hal Cohen and Louis Orr.
That's what I'm counting on at Cameron. A lot of eerie similarities. Well, perhaps not a lot, but a cool one nonetheless

Devastating Historic Loss at home on Wednesday, playing a tough foe on the road on Saturday.
Hmmmmm

 

[joct]

Interesting looking back at Matt Roe's numbers.
Almost 50% from 2 and 3. He'd be on magazine covers in today's game.

And he'd be drafted in the top 15 as a junior.

 

[SWC75]

Ah yes, 3 of my top 5 SU Heartbreaks came that season. That was our first year in the rarified air of being ranked in the top 5.
This year was reminding me of that, of the wild emotional swings like Pitt last week and BC this week.
3 days after the closing of Manley, we pulled a win out of our hamstrings at Alumni Hall St Johns, on a last second dish and drive (and probably an O-foul with Hal Cohen and Louis Orr.
That's what I'm counting on at Cameron. A lot of eerie similarities. Well, perhaps not a lot, but a cool one nonetheless

Devastating Historic Loss at home on Wednesday, playing a tough foe on the road on Saturday.
Hmmmmm

We made it to #2 in the polls and blew out then arch rival St. Bonaventure and went home knowing #1 DePaul was losing. The Blue Demons came back to win and hold on to #1 and our next game was the last game at Manley where we blew a 14 point halftime lead vs. Georgetown and JT2 announced that Manley was closed. We finally achieved our first #1 ranking eight seasons later.

 

[LennX6]

We made it to #2 in the polls and blew out then arch rival St. Bonaventure and went home knowing #1 DePaul was losing. The Blue Demons came back to win and hold on to #1 and our next game was the last game at Manley where we blew a 14 point halftime lead vs. Georgetown and JT2 announced that Manley was closed. We finally achieved our first #1 ranking eight seasons later.

I remember Gtown had 19 pts at halftime, that was obnoxiously low for the era. That so much fed into my feeling of invincibility for the second half. Turns out we ended up scoring a little more than that ourselves in the second half. And cursed by a missed foul shot by a 91% shooter.

 

[SWC75]

I remember Gtown had 19 pts at halftime, that was obnoxiously low for the era. That so much fed into my feeling of invincibility for the second half. Turns out we ended up scoring a little more than that ourselves in the second half. And cursed by a missed foul shot by a 91% shooter.

The halftime score was 30-16. I remember that we didn't seem to be dominating but Georgetown couldn't throw it in the ocean. Actually, it bore some resemblance to last night's game.
http://poststandard.newspaperarchiv...rd/1980-02-13/page-17?tag=syracuse+georgetown

 

[Cusefan0307]

Steve, I was to young to remember in 89, but from what I've been told that team was probably the most talented team in Syracuse history, but also probably the worst free throw shooting team we ever had.