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Topic: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Topic: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

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Flomo-genized
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Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 1:08:14 AM

Were it not for our run last year, I'd have had to rank tonight up there with the Miami game in 2001 as being one of the two worst MAC tournament losses in recent memory. As is, I'll rank it one level below, along with the first round home losses to WMU in 1997 and CMU in 2002.

Ziegler79
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 1:19:37 AM

I still say 2001 against Miami was tougher... Maybe because I was still at OU then. We hadn't been to the tournament since 1994 and we lost a large lead with Grunkemeyer of all people hitting the winning shot. We had a magical run last year and it's so difficult to duplicate that when you rely on getting to the NCAA Tournament by winning 4 straight after barely being above .500 during the regular season.

Only one OHIO
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 1:41:05 AM

Nahh, only #4 for me.

1 Grunkemyer
2 Losing to #12 CMU at home
3 The 2000 loss to Ball St
4 Tonight

oubobcatjohn
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 1:58:16 AM

This team just didn't have "it" this year. They really didn't have that killer mentality to put teams away. They played in 6 overtime games this year and lost 4 of those games. We don't play the defense that wins championships for 40 minutes. We played good defense tonite for most of the second half but the last three we fell apart.

DXer
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 2:23:18 AM

The Grunkemeyer game is definitely #1. We were ahead when he takes the last second shot thus it was sudden victory for them and a lightning bolt for us. Plus, I believe we missed 3 or 4 free throws in the final minute to allow Miami to be within striking distance anyway.

colobobcat66
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 8:38:39 AM

The way the game ended was bad, but we were a 18-14 team going into this game. Very average team because we were so inconsistent. Did everyone really expect another miracle ending like last year? It's not like we were 26-5 or something going in and lost so the pain is not so great for me after I think about it over night.

Bobcat Love
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 8:48:50 AM

The one that hurt most for me was the buzzer beater by Craig Thames at Battelle Hall in Columbus in '93.

Pete Chouteau
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 9:17:33 AM

Bobcat Love wrote:

The one that hurt most for me was the buzzer beater by Craig Thames at Battelle Hall in Columbus in '93.

You beat me to it you bastard! I did not start losing (loosing?) my hair until I heard of Archie Brown and Craig Thames and until Toledo gets a lovable old man for a head coach I will never smile when I hear the words "Toledo Rockets".

For some period of time, I thought that would not be equalled. That period ended March 9, 2001.

Did you know that in a 6 tournament span from 1992-1997, Ohio lost a first round tournament game to the same team they played in the season finale? That stretch included the Thames shot previously mentioned, a home loss to Ball State in '96 and another home loss to Western Michigan in '97. Those were some heinous moments.

Maybe it's age having mellowed me, but last night wasn't tremendously memorable as far as a painful tournament ouster. It just seemed to fit with the way the season went. At the end of it all, I wasn't all that surprised and I really just wanted to go to bed.

Flomo-genized
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 10:16:24 AM

After a night of tossing and turning, I rank this #2 behind the Grunkemeyer game. We blew a 9 point lead with 2:30 left for crying out loud. That is a game that you win 99% of the time. You can't lose that game. You just can't. Admittedly we were up and down this year, but after the way we finished, we really did have a shot to make a run this year. Had we closed out BSU in regulation, I believe the Kent semi-final would have been for the tournament. Whoever won that game would have beaten WMU or Akron in the final. And while I think Kent likely would have beaten us, we had a really good chance nevertheless. That's why losing a game like last night was, to me, so painful.

CMU in 2002 and WMU in 1997 were ugly, but more in the we never showed up and instead crapped the bed variety. We had this game won, but then gave it away. I find the inexplicable first round losses to be more perplexing than painful, personally.

The 1993 Toledo game probably isn't even in my top 5, for the simple reason that that team wasn't going to make a run, and clearly had an extremely bright future. The 1993 tournament was just about getting the requisite experience for 1994 and 1995.

41
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 12:18:52 PM

The '97 WMU loss was tough. We beat BG in front of almost 13,000 on a Wed. night. Fans stormed the court, it was unreal. BG had Antonio Daniels and Jay Larranaga and Anthony Stacey. Curtis Simmons was unreal that night. This tied us for the league lead (this is before divisions) with one game left. Then, we head up to WMU with a league title at stake and we lose there on a Saturday. Then home vs. WMU and lose in what was Geno's last game. No NIT bid either. We had a great comeback win vs. Miami that year as well. Man, the MAC was loaded in the late 90s with EMU being real good too with Derrick Dials and Boykins.

Grunk
WMU @ home
Last night

giacomo
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/11/2011 12:28:07 PM

The Grunkenmeyer shot got Larry Hunter fired. As I heard it from someone who was in the box with the AD(can't remember his name) and President Bob Glidden, when the shot went down the AD went right to Glidden and said "I want him gone". That was it. So it had to be number 1 for a few people, anyway.

Steve
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/13/2011 9:46:11 AM

Grunkenmeyer has to be No. 1. CMU at home. Home losses in the first round to WMU and Ball in back to back seasons have to be right up there too Getting bounced in the semifinals the season we won the preseason NIT is in there, a season in which I believe the league got two bids. And the latest.

OhioCatFan
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/13/2011 5:00:09 PM

While I respect the opinions of all the rest who have posted their most painful memories here, I would have to say that the loss to Ball State probably doesn't make my top 3. The Grunk loss is probably my #1, with those one-and-done jobs in the LH era probably next in line. The reason the BSU loss isn't quite so painful is that it fit a pattern that this team was in all season. Get a big lead and blow it, or on a good day only nearly blow it and squeak out a narrow victory in a game that should have been a "laugher.". I was hoping that we were getting beyond this behavior in tourney time, but I really wasn't all that surprised that we blew a 9 point lead with 2:30 to go. I was very disappointed -- maybe even a little despondent for a brief time -- but I wasn't surprised. Now after a few days of reflection, I'm upset but not at the level as I was after the other aforementioned games. I guess for me it all has to do with expectations. I didn't have as high expectations (maybe hopes, but not expectations) for this team as I did in those other years where I thought we could possibly win some games in the Big Dance. This year, unfortunately, the team never made me a believer -- only a wisher and a dreamer.

Last Edited: 3/13/2011 7:04:51 PM by OhioCatFan

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Jeff McKinney
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/13/2011 5:51:39 PM

I cannot rank this tournament's loss to Ball State among the top five worst losses of all time. The Grunkeshot is definitely #1, and the home loss to CMU would have to be #2.

For some reason, while I was very disappointed by our loss to Ball State Thursday, it doesn't strike me as being on the level of the worst tournament losses of all time.

Flomo-genized
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/13/2011 7:02:20 PM

The issue in my mind is simply blowing a 9 point lead with 150 seconds left, when a win would have given us an excellent shot at securing the automatic bid. While losing to BSU on Thursday isn't as embarassing as the home losses in and of themselves, the circumstances of having the win all but sealed up only to hand it away, especially when we really were positioned to make a deep run in the MAC tournament, make it pretty excruciating to me. Conversely, in 2002 the CMU loss was embarassing, but realistically we weren't beating Kent (or probably even BGSU) in Cleveland regardless of whether we had advanced or not. As a result, that one isn't as painful in my mind, but again more perplexing than anything. But I'm apparently in the minority on that one.

Last Edited: 3/13/2011 7:04:07 PM by Flomo-genized

Monroe Slavin
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/13/2011 11:40:17 PM

Maybe, Flomo. But don't most of us think that we just aren't that good this year, whatever the cause may be? So, likelihood of a run in the MAC tourney was pretty iffy even if we'd've beaten Ball. 'We are/were who we are.'

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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/14/2011 3:08:19 AM

I will watch that game 50 times again before I'd watch a tape of Miami blowing us out a few years ago.

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First Street Forever
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/14/2011 4:31:39 AM

I burned my Ohio hat in my Gam dorm room after we lost in the 1995 MAC tourney to EMU. I don't remember if Boykins and Dials were in full effect then. But I remember being so distraught that we lost. So I burned my hat. I liked setting small, controlled fires back then.

It was a nice hat - I bleached it to a pretty cool shade of gray/green... let's say olive. Bleaching hats was the style back then, although I didn't remove the letter Os to spell "HI". Wasn't my stylee. Sadly, I never could bleach a hat to the same shade again. Where have all the flowers gone...

Was it possible that the game was played in Toledo? I have repressed memories of the horrors of Savage Hall, but I don't think they were courtesy of the Rockets.

Winning the Pre-NIT and then losing in the MAC tourney was hard to take. Then Gary left and so did I a couple years later. Nowadays my Ohio hats are no longer bleached. Just my memories. Time it was, and what a time it was, it was...

Damn, I hate not being able to fall asleep due to DST...

Last Edited: 3/14/2011 4:33:26 AM by First Street Forever

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athena
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RE: Most Painful MAC Tournament Losses

Posted: 3/14/2011 10:00:25 AM

First St... yes, that game was in Toledo. That may have been the last year the tournament was held at Savage Hall, not sure. And yes, Boykins and Dials played in that one.

That was a painful loss for me as well, maybe because I saw it in person... that was the last year we had Trent and we were all expecting a repeat of the previous year, only to be shot down in flames.

#1 painful tournament loss though is the one Benedict Grunkemyer handed us. I still hate him.

This tournament loss probably comes in at about 4th... behind Grunk, EMU in '95, and WMU in the first round at home.

This thread is like a bunch of people sitting around ripping scabs open.

Last Edited: 3/14/2011 10:01:31 AM by athena

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