The Syracuse Orange closed out a spectacular 2009-10 regular season with a tough road loss at Louisville. While most fans understand that losing a road game isn't the end of the world, there will still be plenty of teeth gnashing over the next few days -- especially since Syracuse doesn't play again until Thursday.
The Orange are still a projected number one seed in the NCAA tournament and definitely a national title contender. Given that, I thought I'd take a look and see how some recent National Champions closed out their seasons before entering the NCAA Tournament. The findings are below, and they prove what people not named JT the Brick already know -- that one loss at the end of the season doesn't make the sky fall.
The 2003-04 Connecticut Huskies - The Huskies lost their last regular season game on the road -- to Syracuse -- before winning the Big East Tournament and then romping through the NCAA tournament, eventually beating Georgia Tech to take the title. Orange fans wouldn't mind a similar path.
The 2004-05 North Carolina Tar Heels - The Heels lost in the semi-finals ACC tournament to Georgia Tech before regrouping and making a run to their title.
The Orange are still a projected number one seed in the NCAA tournament and definitely a national title contender. Given that, I thought I'd take a look and see how some recent National Champions closed out their seasons before entering the NCAA Tournament. The findings are below, and they prove what people not named JT the Brick already know -- that one loss at the end of the season doesn't make the sky fall.
The 2003-04 Connecticut Huskies - The Huskies lost their last regular season game on the road -- to Syracuse -- before winning the Big East Tournament and then romping through the NCAA tournament, eventually beating Georgia Tech to take the title. Orange fans wouldn't mind a similar path.
The 2004-05 North Carolina Tar Heels - The Heels lost in the semi-finals ACC tournament to Georgia Tech before regrouping and making a run to their title.
The 2005-06 Florida Gators - The Gators lost 3 regular season games in a row, before rallying to win their final two games, the SEC Tournament and the NCAAs.
The 2006-07 Florida Gators - The Gators again stumbled down the stretch losing 3 of their last 5 before again getting hot and winning the SEC and NCAA tournaments to defend the title.
The 2007-08 Kansas Jayhawks - There's nothing to see here, including the conference and NCAA tournaments, Kansas closed out the year on a 13 game winning streak. Much like this year, you could say these guys were pretty good.
The 2008-09 North Carolina Tar Heels - Like 2005, the heels lost in the semi-finals of the ACC tournament, this time to Florida State, before going on to win the title.
So there you have it - while it's not exactly earth-shattering news, losing at the end of the regular season or conference tournament does not have to be a harbinger of doom and gloom.
So there you have it - while it's not exactly earth-shattering news, losing at the end of the regular season or conference tournament does not have to be a harbinger of doom and gloom.
1 comments:
Good research. I found myself wondering about this exact info on Saturday but was too lazy to look it up. It's gratifying to realize that SU can lose a game like that and still be a near-lock for a #1 seed.
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