Archive

My rant on being undefeated (and the stress involved)

  • FatHobbit
    ytownfootball;668734 wrote:Logic doesn't apply to college basketball...in tournaments...late in the season...at all
    I disagree. I think some kind of logic applies. Just not simple statistics.
    ytownfootball;668734 wrote:That's why you look like you're licking the windows on the short bus.

    Lol
  • ptown_trojans_1
    FatHobbit;668731 wrote:So by that logic wouldn't it be better to have 2 losses going into the tournament?

    Not really, just at least 1 loss.
    It is not my logic, just the last 35 years of college basketball.
  • FatHobbit
    ptown_trojans_1;668741 wrote:Not really, just at least 1 loss.
    It is not my logic, just the last 35 years of college basketball.

    How often does a 1 loss team win the title? I'm looking at Wikipedia (FWIW) now and see

    2008 - 1 loss memphis did not win
    2007 - 1 loss Illinois did not win
    2004 - 1 loss St Joe's and Stanford did not win
    1999 - 1 loss Duke did not win
    1998 - 1 loss Princeton did not win
    1997 - 1 loss Kansas did not win
    1996 - 1 loss Texas Tech and Massachusetts did not win
    1995 - 2 loss UCLA won the title. An earlier loss was forfeited so their official record was 32-1
    1990 - 1 loss La Salle did not win
    1988 - 1 loss Temple did not win
    1987 - 1 loss UNLV did not win
    1982 - 1 loss DePaul did not win
    1980 - 1 loss DePaul did not win
    1977 - 1 loss San Francisco did not win
    1976 - 1 loss Marquette did not win
    1974 - 1 loss NC State did win
    1971 - 1 loss UCLA did win
    1970 - 1 loss Kentucky did not win
    1 loss St Bonaventure did not win
    1969 - 1 loss UCLA did win
    1968 - 1 loss UCLA did win
    1966 - 1 loss Texas Western did win

    So there is a pretty good history of 1 loss teams not making it either. (although strangely I am not finding a list of champs and their overall records)
  • rydawg5
    Ytown - do you believe in voodoo? My god..
  • ytownfootball
    uh huh
  • TBone14
    I don't know how important losses are, but having a number one seed is. Since 1999, only 3 teams have cut down the nets without being a top seed. They were 03 Cuse (3), 04 UConn (2), and 06 Florida (3). The other 9 were all top seeds.
  • rydawg5
    TBone14;668870 wrote:I don't know how important losses are, but having a number one seed is. Since 1999, only 3 teams have cut down the nets without being a top seed. They were 03 Cuse (3), 04 UConn (2), and 06 Florida (3). The other 9 were all top seeds.

    This would support my argument.

    The fact that in the last 35 years 1 team has gone undefeated just means it's hard. This means that when you're undefeated team plays a bad game, sometimes they win and sometimes they lose. It's just like flipping a coin.

    So far, when OSU has had their bad games where most teams normally get their 1st loss, they've survived. This doesn't mean that OSU WILL play more bad games than normal because they squeaked a win, they will still play the same amount, but they've still survived those close calls.

    Every close call is only predicated by the game itself. Just because you had a close call the game before and the ball bounced your way, doesn't mean the ball CAN'T bounce your way again on the next one.

    Tom Izzo isn't setting up a last second shot telling his team they can shoot from half court because the Buckeyes are DUE for a loss. You still have to beat them.

    If we would have lost at Minnesota Sunday, we'd have the same good chance to lose against Wisconsin, regardless of that outcome.

    You only fear being undefeated when your team wasn't really challenged.

    This team has face near losses, adversity (illinois game), and hard fought road battles.

    It doesn't take a loss to get rid of some voodoo curse.

    If you flip a coin 8 times and it lands head ALL 8 times, the next time you flip that coin you have a 50% chance of it being heads. This means that the ball falls your way sometimes and sometimes it doesn't, but if you survive you survive.. you're not due for anything.
  • Jawbreaker
    I don't think records are the only variables in this equation. You have to look at team makeup. Stuff like freshman hitting the figurative wall because they are not conditioned to playing a season this long...Injuries....tournament match ups....guys sleeping with other teammates girlfriends and finding out about it the night before the NC game ;) ... being lucky...etc. Stuff we have all seen before. If only it was as easy as looking at the regular season win/loss record.
  • ptown_trojans_1
    They were bound to lose at least 1 (every team has in 30 some years), so better now than late March.
    Now that that is out of the way, now to focus solely on the B10 and the the tourney.
  • lhslep134
    Still hold firm that I didn't care if we lost or not. And now that we did, I still don't care. I've seen enough from this team to know we're serious national championship contenders.
  • vball10set
    lhslep134;678240 wrote:Still hold firm that I didn't care if we lost or not. And now that we did, I still don't care. I've seen enough from this team to know we're serious national championship contenders.

    ditto, even though I did care--but that's just me
  • lhslep134
    vball10set;678339 wrote:ditto, even though I did care--but that's just me

    I mean vball trust me I was pacing back and forth the last 3 minutes (something I almost never do), but it had more to do with excitement over this particular game and whether or not we could go undefeated more than I cared about it's impact on our ranking, seeding, etc. ya know?
  • vball10set
    ^^^LOL-- I know exactly where you're coming from, Liberty, and I agree 100% :cool: