Worst basketball losses you remember?

#77
#77
wtmvol said:
To take this masochism 1 step further, how about games we did end up winning, but neary lost and would have been awful?

2019 Iowa - leading by 25 in the 2nd half before surviving in OT. Grant Williams reaction afterwards…”I feel like a 5th grader on skittles”

2006 Winthrop - thank you Chris Lofton!

2010 Ohio St - by winning, it shut up the extremely obnoxious Ohio St fans and finally gave us our long-awaited Elite 8

2019 Colgate - as a 2 seed, we’ve had some real nail-biters. This game was much closer than the final score. Losing this would have been catastrophic humiliation, but we would have all been spared the traumatic Purdue finish that was coming our way 7 days later…
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Winthrop was probably my favorite game as a kid. I got out school early to see it.
 
#80
#80
VolsO&W said:
Not the most heartbreaking but definitely the worst to watch (I was there in person, took the freaking Megabus up to DC) was Cuonzo's loss to Georgetown 2012. Neither team scored in the final 4 minutes of the game!!!!
Tennessee vs. Georgetown - Game Recap - November 30, 2012 - ESPN
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That one was terrible. I happened to be at the next game at UVA which was about equally terrible. We got so bored at the game we just started following the Gruden threads.
 
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#83
#83
wtmvol said:
To take this masochism 1 step further, how about games we did end up winning, but neary lost and would have been awful?

2019 Iowa - leading by 25 in the 2nd half before surviving in OT. Grant Williams reaction afterwards…”I feel like a 5th grader on skittles”

2006 Winthrop - thank you Chris Lofton!

2010 Ohio St - by winning, it shut up the extremely obnoxious Ohio St fans and finally gave us our long-awaited Elite 8

2019 Colgate - as a 2 seed, we’ve had some real nail-biters. This game was much closer than the final score. Losing this would have been catastrophic humiliation, but we would have all been spared the traumatic Purdue finish that was coming our way 7 days later…
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Speaking of games where Tennessee looked poor as a two seed, the tourney game against American in 2007-08 was tough.
 
#85
#85
TennesseeFan07 said:
Speaking of games where Tennessee looked poor as a two seed, the tourney game against American in 2007-08 was tough.
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Yep - that one was ugly. I watched it with my dad in a sports bar. My dad hated basketball and wasn't much of a college sports guy anyway. At the end of that game, he shook his head and said he had no idea why Tennessee was so highly ranked.
 
#87
#87
whobethis16 said:
No way in hell that 2007-08 team was overseeded. That team was stacked and should've been at least the Elite 8 or Final Four team.
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You're right. I was thinking of the 2005- 2006 team that was handed a 2 seed. I was thinking they played American in the the first round in 2006 then lost to Wichita State in the 2nd round

Edit: I believe they did play American in 2006
 
#88
#88
That '14 Michigan loss in the tourney when the refs called a foul on Jarnell right at the end of the game was devastating. No legit ref blows the whistle for an over the back with seconds left in the game.
 
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#89
#89
hotcypress said:
That '14 Michigan loss in the tourney when the refs called a foul on Jarnell right at the end of the game was devastating. No legit ref blows the whistle for an over the back with seconds left in the game.
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It was not an over the back, it was a charge call.

Regarding you thinking the ref shouldn't make a call in the last seconds, if a ref is too scared to make a call then, he shouldn't make the call in the first 38 mins. You can argue whether the call was correct, but saying it shouldn't be called just because the amount of time on the clock is ludicrous.
 
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#92
#92
I know I've beat this to death here in the past, but nothing tops UNC, Sweet 16, 2000, for the following reasons:
1. We blew a 7 or 8 point lead with maybe 2 1/2 minutes left.
2. That team had the most talented roster (not the best "team" per se, but most raw talent top to bottom) that UT has ever had, and I will die on that hill. Tony Harris, Marcus Haislip as a freshman, VIncent Yarbrough, Ron Slay (his freshman year), C.J. Black, Isiah Victor (underrated player), Jon Higgins. All they needed was a competent coach and they could have won it all.
3. Had they held on to win, they would have had Tulsa in the Elite 8 (although we somehow lost to them by 20 early in the season), then Florida, who UT beat twice that year (in overtime and double OT), in the FInal Four.
 
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#93
#93
A close second, though, is blowing a 20 point lead to Greg Oden and Ohio State in 2007, sweet 16, a game in which we had Oden in early foul trouble, but went 8-17 from the line and lost by 1.
 
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#94
#94
Up 17 at the half on Ohio State in 2008. Will never in my life eat at a Mellow Mushroom again because that's where I watched the slow death take place. That game still pisses me off.
 
#95
#95
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Two that I hated were the 2009 and 2010 losses to
USCw when Kevin O’Neill was their coach. In December 2009 TN was #9 in the country and was blown out 55-77 in LA. Then a year later TN lost in the TBA 64-65 in Pearl’s final season. KO’s wife was was sitting directly behind the USCw bench at the TBA. She was a POS. I thought that she was going to go hands on with TN fans that were sitting in the first couple of rows. KO was married to a **nt. B**** is too nice of a word to describe her.
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Wasn't she the reason he left K-town?
 
#96
#96
Disagree with most of u all. If Hopson hits one more FT, UT is up 2 points, around 10 seconds from a Final 4, a mother effing Final 4, instead he misses and Draymond gets the rebound and goes coast to coast. How can that not be the worst loss ever, considering the outcome. No bullsh!t call on Lamomte against Purdue UT hangs on against North Carolina and Ohio St., the ball doesn't bounce 4 times and go in for Sister Jean's team and we don't go ice cold against Michigan in the last 5 minutes last year, all hurt. But none of those wins would have put in the Vols in the Final 4. But you know, if Hopson hits another FT or Green misses and Chism grabs the rebound, UT has their only Final 4 and that is the Worst Loss in Tennessee Basketball history for simply denying our first and only Final 4, imo
 
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#97
#97
ZZ13 said:
Yup. They couldn’t even win one of those either.
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RE Commissioner's Tournament.......

The 1975 game was one I attended but don't remember much about it. I arrived at the arena late listening to the introductions on the radio, and while speed walking from deep in the parking lot to beat the tip, in my fashionable shoes with the massively high heels, I stepped on a rock and severely sprained my ankle about a hundred yards from the ticket window. I sucked it up continued with a significant limp to the marble and glass windows. As I reached for my wallet the pain intensified and I noticed that I could either keep my knees locked or my head up but could not do both at the same time so I alternated for a few seconds. Then I suddenly just passed out and fell backwards on the sidewalk, evidently whacking my head badly.

The next thing I know a KY mountie was leaning over me and inquired "Son, have you been a'drinkin?" I responded no. He followed with "Son, have you been a do'in something else?" and once again said no and explained the ankle issue. So he and the Red Cross wheeled me into the concourse for free, and the cop stuck around and asked if there was anything he could do, so I handed him a few bucks and asked him to buy me a Coke and a hotdog. Two sips in, the sugar rushed cleared me up pretty well, he shook his head in amazement and I was free to go.

Recognizing I was at risk I immediately hatched a plan to look around and find somebody I knew from Nashville to accompany me home after the game. So I hobbled around the whole game and if I saw anyone I did not recognize them. Would have helped if they were not an Orange school too I guess. We of course lost the game to Bowling Green and late in the game during my now frantic search for assistance I got right down to court level, somehow within feet of the action and I noticed when I looked at a player under the bright lights I could only see one side of his face... UH OH. This was not my first concussion, so I knew the deal. I had no intention of seeking Louisville medical assistance for the night.

To make it worse I was completing my first week of work for a new company and was driving a company car, I could not remember what it was, and lost all perspective of the entrance I used. Needless to say the only backup plan I had was to wait till most of the cars had left the lot and roam around. Took a while but It worked, I spied a familiar car hobbled all the way to it and was determined to get back to my Nashville apartment so I used those old KY Turnpike, in the middle of the median, gas stops and would buy a few bucks of gas and pay an attendant (yes kids they used to exist) to bring me a couple of cups of coffee too, until I was way south and filled all the way up and limped on in, in my 1974 Ford Galaxie land yacht.

Pretty embarrassing having to tell the new boss I could not show up for my second Monday at work due to a sprained ankle and a concussion. Clearly not my favorite UT BB memory. Lost by 8 or 10 if I remember right, but I obviously would not bet on it.

Sorry for yet another War and Peace length way back machine memory.... but you brought it up.....
 
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#99
#99
lostsheep said:
Wasn't she the reason he left K-town?
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I hadn’t heard that. I always heard that KO was done with Dickey after DAD refused to allow KO to play Isiah Victor. KO hated Dickey so much that he got in contact with every candidate to warn them that they wouldn’t find DAD to be a decent boss. So the job fell to Drunkle Jerry.
 
#100
#100
Worst loss (that stung): E8 to Michigan St.

Worst loss (total embarrassment): Beatdown from SW Missouri St. in R2
 
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