Greatest Gut Punch Bracket
- Thread starter spierceisu
- Start date
That last Fred team always seemed shaky. Beat some great teams and was capable of losing to really horrible ones like Tech and South Carolina. Maybe I’m in the minority, but it didn’t sting all that much. That team wasn’t going to go on a long run if they won that anyways. Same with the Hampton year.
This little tournament doesn't seem as fun any more.
It's more fun on the Iowa and UNI matches.
Before Virginia lost to UMBC, I would have said Hampton. But given that 2001 team was already going through a nuclear meltdown at that point in the year, have to go with Niang's broken foot.
That's probably the practical decision, based on reason you stated and the retrospective assessment. But I tend to vote based on how each felt in the moment (or my best recollection of the feeling), so I'd lean toward Hampton. It had finality to it ... but for balance, I do remember thinking Niang's injury might be enough to spell doom vs. UNC, so it is a close call.
Specific to this part of your post, that game helps soften the blow (as does passage of time) --- also helps that there have been four other 15-over-2 upsets since Hampton, too. The stretch between that loss and Norfolk State & Lehigh upsets -- what was it, 11 years? Being the "most recent example" got old. It's faded into the background a smidgen in the past decade, isn't as much of an outlier.
The "blarge," and other calls in that game cost us a national championship.
Clear-cut 1 seed and winner. Period.
Clear-cut 1 seed and winner. Period.
