SWC75
Bored Historian
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We always get nervous this time of year about suffering embarrassing first round losses. I thought I’d examine the subject a bit.
I guess the point to be made is that all the teams in the NCAAs are good teams and losing to any of them isn’t really shameful, just surprising in some cases. JB is constantly talking about how many good players and teams are out there. Everybody has suffered first round losses from time to time. Coach K lost to Lehigh. Rick Pitino lost to Morehead State. Kansas has lost to Bucknell and Northern lowa. Lute Olson won a national tile and lost in the4 first round 11 times. Bobby Knight won three national championships and went one and done 9 times. But the stigma probably will never go away. People still talk about Richmond and Vermont as if they were the Titanic and the Hindenburg.
I’m only going to be looking at Round of 64 games here but it should be noted that in 1978 we lost a Round of 32 game that we were in due to a bye to Western Kentucky, 86-87. That was the one where Marty Byrnes scored the tying basket and was fouled and Bill Packer screamed at the refs that it was a continuation call and you can’t do that in college ball. The refs discussed it for 5 minutes, leaving Marty on the foul line, before reversing their call, taking the tying basket off the board and forcing Marty to make both ends of what was now a one and one to tie it with a second left. He missed and the rebound bounced out of bounds as the clock ran out.
Our first Round of 64 game was Pitno’s nemesis, Morehead State in 1983. We won, 74-59.
1985: We beat future Big East foe DePaul, 70-65.
1986: Jim Brown’s old school nipped Brown 101-52.
1987: The run to the national title game began with a pedestrian 79-73 win over Georgia Southern.
1988: We topped North Carolina A&T 69-55.
1989: Billy Owens took over when Derrick Coleman hurt has back against Bucknell, 104-81. (Mike Tirico, working for Channel 3, predicted a loss to Colorado State in the next round. Wrong, Mike.)
1990: We copped it against Coppin State 70-48.
1991: Ugh, Richmond 69-73.
1992: The backdoor wasn’t open against Princeton 51-43.
1994: I was glad we beat the school my brother works for: Hawaii 92-78.
1995: We won a wild one vs. Southern Illinois, 96-92, before losing a wilder one vs. defending national champion Arkansas, 94-96.
1996: The run to the title game began with an 88-55 win over Montana State. They love us out there.
1998: Iona 63-61. Thank you, Marius Janulis.
1999: Oklahoma State and Doug Gottlieb in an 8-9 game, 61-69.
2000: Samford, (not Stanford!) 79-65
2001: Hawaii again, 79-69. My poor brother!
2003: Manhattan 76-65. We didn’t really look like champions at that point.
2004: GMAC buries BYU under 43 points, 80-75.
2005: Ugh, II: Vermont 57-60.
2006: Texas A&M 58-66. GMAC’s a career ends on the bench after the great run in New York.
2009: Stephen F. Austin 59-44. Look at them now!
2010: Vermont II: 79-56. Why don’t we remember that one?
2011: Indiana State 77-60. No, they didn’t have Larry Bird.
2012: UNC Ashville 72-65 in a shaky potatoes game.
2013: Montana 81-34. Loved Seth Davis’ wardrobe.
2014: We get well vs. Western Michigan, 77-53.
We are thus 22-4 in the Round of 64 with an average score of 75-62. The alst six eyars, we are 6-0 with an average score of 74-52.
Maybe we worry too much?
I guess the point to be made is that all the teams in the NCAAs are good teams and losing to any of them isn’t really shameful, just surprising in some cases. JB is constantly talking about how many good players and teams are out there. Everybody has suffered first round losses from time to time. Coach K lost to Lehigh. Rick Pitino lost to Morehead State. Kansas has lost to Bucknell and Northern lowa. Lute Olson won a national tile and lost in the4 first round 11 times. Bobby Knight won three national championships and went one and done 9 times. But the stigma probably will never go away. People still talk about Richmond and Vermont as if they were the Titanic and the Hindenburg.
I’m only going to be looking at Round of 64 games here but it should be noted that in 1978 we lost a Round of 32 game that we were in due to a bye to Western Kentucky, 86-87. That was the one where Marty Byrnes scored the tying basket and was fouled and Bill Packer screamed at the refs that it was a continuation call and you can’t do that in college ball. The refs discussed it for 5 minutes, leaving Marty on the foul line, before reversing their call, taking the tying basket off the board and forcing Marty to make both ends of what was now a one and one to tie it with a second left. He missed and the rebound bounced out of bounds as the clock ran out.
Our first Round of 64 game was Pitno’s nemesis, Morehead State in 1983. We won, 74-59.
1985: We beat future Big East foe DePaul, 70-65.
1986: Jim Brown’s old school nipped Brown 101-52.
1987: The run to the national title game began with a pedestrian 79-73 win over Georgia Southern.
1988: We topped North Carolina A&T 69-55.
1989: Billy Owens took over when Derrick Coleman hurt has back against Bucknell, 104-81. (Mike Tirico, working for Channel 3, predicted a loss to Colorado State in the next round. Wrong, Mike.)
1990: We copped it against Coppin State 70-48.
1991: Ugh, Richmond 69-73.
1992: The backdoor wasn’t open against Princeton 51-43.
1994: I was glad we beat the school my brother works for: Hawaii 92-78.
1995: We won a wild one vs. Southern Illinois, 96-92, before losing a wilder one vs. defending national champion Arkansas, 94-96.
1996: The run to the title game began with an 88-55 win over Montana State. They love us out there.
1998: Iona 63-61. Thank you, Marius Janulis.
1999: Oklahoma State and Doug Gottlieb in an 8-9 game, 61-69.
2000: Samford, (not Stanford!) 79-65
2001: Hawaii again, 79-69. My poor brother!
2003: Manhattan 76-65. We didn’t really look like champions at that point.
2004: GMAC buries BYU under 43 points, 80-75.
2005: Ugh, II: Vermont 57-60.
2006: Texas A&M 58-66. GMAC’s a career ends on the bench after the great run in New York.
2009: Stephen F. Austin 59-44. Look at them now!
2010: Vermont II: 79-56. Why don’t we remember that one?
2011: Indiana State 77-60. No, they didn’t have Larry Bird.
2012: UNC Ashville 72-65 in a shaky potatoes game.
2013: Montana 81-34. Loved Seth Davis’ wardrobe.
2014: We get well vs. Western Michigan, 77-53.
We are thus 22-4 in the Round of 64 with an average score of 75-62. The alst six eyars, we are 6-0 with an average score of 74-52.
Maybe we worry too much?
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