What a missed opportunity

[krup]

I think in time it more resembles 06. A once in a generation opportunity (with how the bracket worked out) to make a serious run. Myles missed dunk was Townsends drop.

That way 2006 doesn’t match as well is in what would have happened after RU won.

There was real upside left in this tournament for Rutgers to get tons of attention/credit and possibly win even more.

The 2012 Louisville team got a HUGE bump in national perception by playing and beating Florida.

In 2006, the ACC also had an unexpected team win their league (Wake Forest). They threw Louisville and them together in the Orange Bowl to keep the rest of the NYD bowls reserved for the “big” programs. The Orange Bowl got limited attention and Louisville didn’t get much credit because they “only” beat Wake Forest.

 

[Pancho1939]

the ncaa tournament is one big missed opportunity for 99% of the teams. Every team playing except maybe a couple 16 seeds could have won a game or two in the tournement.

 

[jordkap]

That way 2006 doesn’t match as well is in what would have happened after RU won.

There was real upside left in this tournament for Rutgers to get tons of attention/credit and possibly win even more.

The 2012 Louisville team got a HUGE bump in national perception by playing and beating Florida.

In 2006, the ACC also had an unexpected team win their league (Wake Forest). They threw Louisville and them together in the Orange Bowl to keep the rest of the NYD bowls reserved for the “big” programs. The Orange Bowl got limited attention and Louisville didn’t get much credit because they “only” beat Wake Forest.

It was said if we got there they would have had us play USC which if I remember correctly was the Leinart Bush team

 

[kcg88]

Illinois had a once in a generation team lose to a small in-state school. If they'd won that, their Sweet 16 game would've been against a 12 seed.

Oklahoma State has the #1 pick in the draft and they lost to a 12 seed. If they'd won, their next game would've been against an 8 seed.

Texas has a roster full of pros and lost to a 14 seed. If they'd won, they'd be facing an 11 seed to get to the Sweet 16.

This is how it goes.

 

[jordkap]

Illinois had a once in a generation team lose to a small in-state school. If they'd won that, their Sweet 16 game would've been against a 12 seed.

Oklahoma State has the #1 pick in the draft and they lost to a 12 seed. If they'd won, their next game would've been against an 8 seed.

Texas has a roster full of pros and lost to a 14 seed. If they'd won, they'd be facing an 11 seed to get to the Sweet 16.

This is how it goes.

The difference is those teams were beat that day... while it sucks, there’s not a ton of what if’s in a game where you lose by 10+ And are down the whole game.

Rutgers had the game in the bag with one of about 6 things going their way

 

[krup]

It was said if we got there they would have had us play USC which if I remember correctly was the Leinart Bush team

Maybe if we hadn’t lost either the Cincinnati game or the WVU game and were an undefeated top 3 team that would have happened, but once the three Big East teams each all got a loss the conference was sent to the children’s table with Wake Forest so the othe big bowls could be matchups of the “big time” schools.

 

[RobotHunter]

Looking at the big picture has to be one of the worst loses in Rutgers sports history. Myles slams that alley oop down and RU is up 10 instead of 5 after the three, guy misses 2 free throws and gets rebound and hits a three, Geo bounces ball off knee with the chance to win the game down only one. Complete collapse. The worst part is that RU had a very manageable clear path to the final 4. That sounds insane but just beat Cuse again and then Loyola or Ok St. Not a gimmie but very doable. Also, the media attention this week would have been off the charts. Crushing brutal lose.

 

[RobotHunter]

I'm hurt like any other Rutgers fan but it seems like Is never good enough for some people. If we would have won this game and lost to Syralose people would be saying how devastating of a lost that was. The program will never recover, etc. Etc. The same thing if we made it to the Elite 8 and lost there.

Be thankful that the team made it a super exciting March Madness for us! For many of us, this was the greatest tournament in our lifetime. Doing it again next year with the same level of excitement while risking a similar heartbreak/pain should be the focus of players and fans!

Go RU!

Its just the way they lost. If RU lost a tough game to Houston by 8-9 pts people would have absolutely had that attitude. Great run and lost to a very good team. The fact that RU was in total control of this game and literally just needed one dunk or layup to go in or one rebound to finish them off is the devastating part. Basically everything that needed to go wrong the last few minutes for RU did go wrong.

 

[fluoxetine]

I think the bottom line is this:

IF we don't get this opportunity again for another 30 years, it's not going to be BECAUSE of this game in any way. It wasn't the Louisville loss in 2012 that killed us, it was the fact that we had a mediocre coach and were on our way to becoming a mid-major in a forgotten conference. This program had it's best year in forever and is on the way up. This game does nothing to stop that.

 

[RUforJERSEY]

Yeah the sweet 16 is when your team really starts to get highlighted. Not as many games played at once so you get more of an audience of hoop fans across the country who dont have other options. Hug

 

[IL Lusciato]

Its just the way they lost. If RU lost a tough game to Houston by 8-9 pts people would have absolutely had that attitude. Great run and lost to a very good team. The fact that RU was in total control of this game and literally just needed one dunk or layup to go in or one rebound to finish them off is the devastating part. Basically everything that needed to go wrong the last few minutes for RU did go wrong.

Your posts are spot on.

This is exactly why the loss is so devastating.

 

[Greg2020]

I don't know why there is so much arguing in this thread. 3 things can all be true at once:

1. It was a great season (true)
2. We had an epic collapse last night (true)
3. The season ended up disappointing in a way. Not because we lost to Houston or in the round of 32, but because of how we lost. We should have won that game and we should be in the sweet 16. We would have had a decent chance at making the final four. We could have lost in the sweet 16, who knows. But that loss was awful. It would not have felt nearly as bad if we just trailed all game or only had a max lead of 3, it was a pure choke job.

 

[Scangg]

Its monday it sucks that we lost. There are a lot worse rhings in the world, I am sure you can get over this.

Thanks mom. Obviously there are worse things I the world. Will I ever get over this lost opportunity for a sweet 16 and favorable path to the final four? No. No, I won't.

What a dumb comment. Save it

 

[fluoxetine]

Thanks mom. Obviously there are worse things I the world. Will I ever get over this lost opportunity for a sweet 16 and favorable path to the final four? No. No, I won't.

What a dumb comment. Save it

To me, if we never get over this, it means the program has failed. Really the goal is to get to a place where this is NOT some once in 30 years, never going to get it back opportunity.

 

[IL Lusciato]

I don't know why there is so much arguing in this thread. 3 things can all be true at once:

1. It was a great season (true)
2. We had an epic collapse last night (true)
3. The season ended up disappointing in a way. Not because we lost to Houston or in the round of 32, but because of how we lost. We should have won that game and we should be in the sweet 16. We would have had a decent chance at making the final four. We could have lost in the sweet 16, who knows. But that loss was awful. It would not have felt nearly as bad if we just trailed all game or only had a max lead of 3, it was a pure choke job.

EXACTLY. And no one is saying negative things about the team, players, or how good the season was ..just how we lost was heartbreaking.

 

[Scangg]

To me, if we never get over this, it means the program has failed. Really the goal is to get to a place where this is NOT some once in 30 years, never going to get it back opportunity.

Still won't. This team and program turnaround was special. The storybook ending was right there for the taking and we blew it in the worst way possible with play after play after play. Heartbreaking for fans and even worse for the players. Poor Geo known for being clutch has to go out with that play. It's the most brutal loss I can imagine. If the loss went down a different way, sure... but the way it all went down... no.... it will be a forever legend of the ultimate RU screw disaster collapse. All time level choke job. It's like the Reggie Miller Knicks choke job. It will never be forgotten.

 

[RUnTeX]

Loyola or Ok St

You meant Ore St (12 seed instead of Ok St-4 seed). Even more favorable on paper based on seeding but who knows, the Beavers have been playing really well including the PAC12 title run that got them into the NCAAs. Ore St-Loyola of Chicago shaping up to be a great game.

 

[rucoe89]

Many opportunities in life get missed. We’ve all had opportunities we let get away. Damn frustrating. Ultimately it’s what you learn from it that’ll define you. Maybe not in the same forum, but somewhere else. That’ll be true for the players, the coaches and the team overall. On to next season.

 

[LotusAggressor]

I think with that stupid zone Cuse is going to Final Four.

That's the advantage of playing a defense that people don't see that often anymore. That advantage is increased by the fact that the college basketball coaching community is not overflowing with geniuses.

 

[rutobs]

Things really couldn't have been breaking better within the region for RU. WVU and Illinois losing today. For as flawed a team as it was this season in certain aspects, there was a path shaping up to an incredibly unlikely but potentially special Final 4 run. It would have been magical and a dream Cinderella scenario. But the shortcomings reared their ugly head when they couldn't execute well enough down the stretch in the final minutes.

Still damn proud of this team and group, but damn what could have been....we'll never really know.

Totally agree with this; it was shaping up as good as a bracket could ever look for a team such as ours. But we said it all year long; how badly we miss Yeboah. He would have made a huge difference on this team.

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

With 4:30 left we had a 90% chance of winning

 

[LotusAggressor]

Illinois had a once in a generation team lose to a small in-state school. If they'd won that, their Sweet 16 game would've been against a 12 seed.

Oklahoma State has the #1 pick in the draft and they lost to a 12 seed. If they'd won, their next game would've been against an 8 seed.

Texas has a roster full of pros and lost to a 14 seed. If they'd won, they'd be facing an 11 seed to get to the Sweet 16.

This is how it goes.

Seedings are often meaningless. After Gonzaga and maybe Baylor, you can pretty much just put all the teams in a hat and pull the names out. Illinois' once in a generation team didn't just lose to a small school in their state. They were surgically dismantled by a team that was in the Final Four not that long ago.

 

[fluoxetine]

With 4:30 left we had a 90% chance of winning

View embedded media

If we were in this position in every game this year we would expect to lose 2-3 of them.

It sucks but it’s hardly a once in a lifetime collapse.

 

[B1GRUfan]

Its just the way they lost. If RU lost a tough game to Houston by 8-9 pts people would have absolutely had that attitude. Great run and lost to a very good team. The fact that RU was in total control of this game and literally just needed one dunk or layup to go in or one rebound to finish them off is the devastating part. Basically everything that needed to go wrong the last few minutes for RU did go wrong.

According to the ESPN game tracker, our win probability was 91.1% with 5:50 left and 90% with 4:33 left. It was still 66.7% with 1:04 left. Just an epic meltdown. Man this hurts.

 

[ScarletKid2008]

Seize the opportunity ..... in life, opportunities come up. Sometimes expected and earned, and others unexpected .

There are no guarantees that we'll be in that position again anytime soon or at all in our lifetime. Its insanely hard just to make it to that point. Look at RU football and the opportunities they had to make a BCS bowl game, twice. Now for us to even fathom that is beyond reality at this current point.

It was there. In our hands unexpectedly. And we're not sure if or when we'll ever be in that position again.

 

[DennisHajekRC84]

With 4:30 left we had a 90% chance of winning

View embedded media

hell, we still had a 70% chance with 1 minute left. SMH
I imagine had we finished and won we would be in the top 25 year end ranking. That would have been really nice too.

 

[RUChoppin]

That's what hurts so much with this one..... this wasn't something Houston did or didn't do that caused us to lose. We got the alley-oop against their defense - and just missed the dunk. We had control of the ball off that FT.... but just missed the spike off the player laying on the ground. We had ran down the play clock.... but had the ball in the wrong guy's hands to take the three. We had the ball down 1... but just lost the handle. We got the clean look to tie... and missed.

There were a few other things where Houston just outplayed us, too.... Young ran into traffic and had nowhere to go, and passed the ball to nowhere... that was a forced turnover by their defense. They got the rebound on the missed FT.... that was better rebounding and effort to get another possession. They got the offensive putback that Baker fouled them on.... that was great offense and rebounding and hustle.

Houston definitely made some big plays down the stretch where they just beat us.... but we also shot ourselves in the foot, too, which allowed their plays to be difference makers instead of a valiant failed effort.

And then to see that the the top of the quadrant also got wiped out..... the 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 teams all gone, and we could have been battling the 11 for a chance to play the winner of the 8/12 game. Just salt in the wound.

 

[bitnez]

It was no doubt a lost opportunity. But, let's remember we are not a mid-major. There's no reason we can't be back in this position 75-80% of the time. Look at Cuse. They haven't been a single digit seed in 5 years. Yet, they have a Final Four and another chance this year. If you keep going back eventually you may make a run.