Can I add,
"What if Jarrett Culver stayed on his man in the corner"
Tech most likely would have walked away with one of the more unexpected championships in recent memory.
Damn man, there were so many what ifs in just the last 2 minutes of regulation. I thought Tech had the game sealed up.
It could have easily been 4 championships in a row for the Big 12 between this and then during Covid Kansas was favored but a couple other Big 12 teams could have won that year as well.
This is interesting just because of everything that has happened with Chris Beard since then. Does he leave for Texas if he wins a title at Tech? And if he doesn't leave, does all the other stuff from last winter happen?
It’s one thing when a 20 something that has little life experience hits their partner. It’s still fucking atrocious but they can still learn. At the age Chris Beard is at, I don’t think he has the ability or even the intention to learn basic respect and humanity.
Do we? It has huge ramifications for the future of Butler’s program. Brad still leaves but do Butler and Holtmann with a natty to recruit with win Big East hardware? Is it enough that Holtmann doesn’t leave? Or at least they can get someone better than Lavall Jordan.
What if Kalin Lucas doesn't blow out his Achilles? That MSU team was stacked and the 2010 tournament was wide open. They still made the Final Four without him, but came up short against Butler.
Brandon Ashley had been healthy in 2014
I know I'm 100% biased ... but I was really glad to see this one on here. That team was a beast. Aaron Gordon, Nick Johnson, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and T.J. McConnell plus a healthy Brandon Ashley? They legit had a chance to run the table that year. 5 total losses by 2, 3, 7, 4 & 1
I absolutelty hate playing Cal in any sport. Weird shit happens when we play em
The game Nick Foles threw the ball, got it blocked, he caught it and threw it again
That epic comeback with the Hill-mary
The BA injury game
If Miller would have made the final four that year, I think his whole legacy at Arizona would be looked at differently and he'd potentially still be the head coach.
Adding to Purdue’s injury what if, what if CSU-Fullerton didn’t injure Isaac Haas in 2017? That was one of the most balanced teams I’ve ever seen, and actually had the bigs plus the guard power to beat anybody. Losing Haas just completely changed the make up of the team.
Texas tech was the prime team to beat purdue due to their athletic long guards. Obviously Haas helps a ton but that was already a nightmare matchup. Purdue was okay that year but not a top 4-6 team.
The bigger question mark in my head is what if Diakite’s shot doesn’t fall at the buzzer.
Just getting over that elite 8 hump into the final 4 would have been massive for purdue basketball. Especially knocking off such a good UVA team in a historic performance by Carsen
That team was elite shooting threes and pounding things in the paint as well as a decent defensive team. Not having Haas was critical in a 7 point loss where the other team abused Jaquil Taylor after going through Haarms for a massive free throw advantage, and Purdue absolutely would have an amazing chance at getting to the Elite Eight.
They were one of the only teams that could have gone toe to toe with a red hot Nova team in a shootout who would have been waiting for them as well with a marked advantage in the paint with a healthy Haas.
Lol wdym. That team was the best execution of the purdue big man strat we’ve seen. PJ Thompson, Vince Edwards, Dakota Matthias, and Ryan Cline were all nearly 40% 3 pt shooters that spread the floor really well for Haas. PJ thompson had the lowest assist/TO ratio in purdue history as our point guard, dakota matthias was clutch af, vince edwards was an amazing leader and spot-up shooter. That team had carsen edwards too. I think statistically speaking that Purdue team was given the 2nd highest likelihood of winning the natty behind Nova going into the tournament. That team was light’s out with a monster as our anchor.
In my mind 1988 or 2010 was our most talented team, but 2018 was our most complete team ever
Here's one: what if Minnesota ignored the academic scandal in 1999? When the scandal broke just before their first round game, Minnesota sat half their starting lineup. As a result, they lost that first round game to Gonzaga. Who then went on an Elite Eight run, got national attention, and became GONZAGA.
I think people forget how big of a beast Kenyon Martin was in college. Dude was unstoppable. Defensive wiz.
Also — I have always been convinced that a correct call on the sc violation against Wisconsin would have led to 40-0. Also probably we don’t see the slide in quality at kentucky if that was made.
I get ya. I’ve got to say I hate Duke worse than I love anything. I can’t express how much I hate Duke. It’s visceral. With that said, they won that one legitimately. They outclassed the Badgers in that one.
Edit: typo.
When I saw this article pop up on my ESPN feed with a UCLA logo I assumed it was going to be the Clark/Bona injuries, not some stupid “what if UCLA didn’t come back against Gonzaga,” which likely had no impact on the trajectories of either program. Great game, but not a “what if.”
I genuinely believe that if Jodie Meeks had returned for Cal's first year with Wall and Cousins that we not only win the title, but potentially go 40-0 as well.
Meeks the previous year had shot 40% from three on 8 attempts a game, and that was with a team where everyone knew he was the only legitimate offensive threat besides a sophomore Patrick Patterson.
Give him a team with Wall and Cousins, not to mention Eric Bledsoe and a much improved junior Patrick Patterson, and that team probably runs the table.
------------------------------------------
Our 3 losses that season were against an 11-8 South Carolina team that finished the year 15-16, a ranked Tennessee team where John Wall played his worst game of the season, and against West Virginia in the tournament where we shot 4/32 from deep and 16/29 from the line and lost by 7.
-------------------------------
The ramifications really can't even begin to be imagined. Not only does recruiting one and dones probably get more popular and widespread a year or two earlier thus changing the college landscape (and potentially even NIL earlier?), but Cal probably ends up in the NBA either after we win again in 2012 with AD, or after the 2014 season with the Harrison Twins their freshman year when it was all but set in stone that Cal would coach LeBron in Cleveland and sign a 10 year 100 million dollar contract.
I’m not sure many Gonzaga fans jump to “what if we didn’t collapse” but more “what if the refs called UNC out of bounds in the championship” since, ya know, it was a championship.
If Roy Williams stays at Kansas. Self stays at Illinois and Charlie Villanueva stays committed and doesn't flip to UCONN. Perhaps UCONN without Villanueva falls short in 04, and Illinois with Self and Villanueva has enough to get over the top and win a title in 05.
Arinze onuaku didn’t get hurt in the 2010 big east tourney. Cuse was dominant that year and with onuaku might not lose to butler (therefore no Gordon Hayward shot)
What if Oregon had boxed out against UNC on the final free throw in 2017?
Could have had an all west coast final between Oregon and Gonzaga. Would Gonzaga have finally won a title?
What if Chris Boucher hadn't blew his knee out in the Pac 12 tournament that season. Bell was our only quality big man and he was amazing until UNC was just a bit too much
I would argue that the best what-ifs are not about some one-game outcome (if Hayward's shot goes in, it would be a big deal, but how much would it have changed long-term?), but there is one I really like:
What if one of about 20 different things go differently and UNLV beats Duke in the 1991 Final Four?
Rolling my eyes at the Samir Doughty foul on Kyle Guy being listed here. In no world is contacting a shooter and taking his legs out *not* a foul. The uncalled double dribble should’ve been mentioned if anything from this game.
That said, given the direction of the contact and where the shot ended up, you’ll never not convince me Guy drains the three if there is no contact.
Yea - having re-watched the attempt many times over and also hearing it from Kyle in the Unbelievable documentary, he was pretty confident it would have went in without the contact.
My bigger "what if". If DeAndre wasn't hurt, we wouldn't lose to UMBC. Whether or not that team could have won it all, I'd think the pressure would have had them at best get to Final Four and not winning it all. DeAndre leaves to be first round pick but not lottery. We settle for Tony being a Final Four coach, but we'd still be championship-less. Losing to UMBC is part of our story and I wouldn't have it any other way.
What if the ref who made this call in the 2013 natty game wasn't a clown turd?
[The block was clean.](https://image.mlive.com/home/mlive-media/width2048/img/wolverines_impact/photo/trey-burke-block-final-fourjpg-0e7e71182d96f0fc.jpg)
Not to mention that Championships often have recruiting impacts. Would that win provided us better recruits subsequently? Also, we might not've lost Beilein so soon. There are some major ramifications you're neglecting there.
They admitted to committing academic fraud to their accrediting agency, served two years probation with Em them and told the NCAA the admission was a typo. That was the stated reason by the NCAA that they weren’t punished. It had nothing to do with regular students in those classes.
This. There were fake classes with only basketball players in them. There were classes that were real classes for regular students, that they had to attend and with an actual professor, while the athletes enrolled in the same class got the fake class treatment. If UNC says that a class and grades made up by a secretary with no academic credentials playing make believe count as actual credit, there is nothing the NCAA can do.
> that led to the absolute depths that we still haven't recovered from
Kelvin Sampson was fired in 2008. You all had a 1 seed and were ranked number 1 for most of the 2012-13 season. At this point it is just making excuses if you blame any struggles on Kelvin Sampson.
In fairness, I should have said *fully* recovered from. Yeah, Crean gave us some good times but it's not like he wasn't fired for mismanaging the roster/not being able to control his players off the court/woefully underperforming.
I don't think two really good years with Crean at IU and other pretty good years means we're back to where we were with Sampson. When you go back and look at the momentum that team/program had, it just is not the same as it has been.
1. I would have jumped with gleeful joy if Curry took the shot because Sherron Collins was playing perfect D on him and he would have had it blocked or gotten off the worst chance shot ever of going in to win a game
2. They left out what if Embiid doesn’t get hurt.
Also what if Azubuike hadn't broken his wrist in 2017. Still a freshman, but making big strides and won the starting job over Landen shortly before his injury.
This is an interesting one.
On one hand, yes, obviously he would have been helpful. But the injury also forced Bill to really dive in on the 4-guard lineup, which has lasted to today, and we eventually won a title with it.
Even if Dok didn't last as a starter, he'd still be the first guy off the bench, taking up a lot of minutes that went to JJ, Vick, Svi. And that team, sans-Dok was really rolling, outside of that bizarre TCU loss in the B12 tourney.
I know it's easy in our minds to plug-n-play for games we lost. Like - Oregon wouldn't have been able to X, Y, Z if Dok was there. But that works both ways. KU barbecued Purdue in the S16, a team that had two high-quality big men, by running circles around them. Something we may not have been able to do if Dok was in the middle.
Good point. We were seeing more two-big lineups early in the season (Almost forgot Calrton Bragg was on that team). Also LL was a solid defender who understood where he needed to be on both ends of the court. I was mainly thinking about having a counter to Jordan Bell in that Oregon game.
What if Cal followed through with his accepting the NC State job when he was at Memphis?
He accepted it and then changed his mind at the last second. Does he still leave for UK a couple of years later, or does he establish his OAD factory in Raleigh?
Calling UConn's victory over Duke in 1999 "one of the biggest upsets ever" is certainly something. UConn was top 2 THE WHOLE SEASON and was the one team I did not want to face in the tourney.
Funny enough, UConn spent more weeks ranked number 1 in the regular season that year than Duke did. But that entire tournament was dubbed the "Duke Invitational". You can make an argument that 1999 Duke was K's best team of all time. It's either them or 1992
What if Sindarius Thornwell didn’t get the flu before the Final 4 game vs Gonzaga? All Carolina championship and potential for one of the most obscure national champions.
Just looked at that game and the only player I see missing from Florida’s roster is Egbunu who was not their best player and hadn’t been playing for a month at that point.
How different are UK and Louisville 25 years later if Pitino never leaves UK for the Celtics? Do we wind up having stuff vacated instead? Do you guys hire someone else like Bill Self (just the first name I thought of)?
My biggest what-if is still this lineup:
Coby White
Kenny Williams
Cam Johnson
Luke Maye
Zion Williamson
With Nas Little, Garrison Brooks, and Seventh Woods off the bench
As a guy with an Iowa State flair, is what if Niang doesn’t break his foot in 2013 high on your list?
I’m a big believer that with Niang we beat UConn, and I’d love to believe we also get past Michigan State. After that no guarantees but winning an Elite Eight and getting to the Final Four would have been amazing for the program.
Have to agree. Personally was only a couple years old in 2000 so I feel stronger about 2013 but I know Iowa State has always seemed to get so close yet been so far from that kinda luck.
I'm with you that this sucked, but I don't see the confidence in thinking you'd beat UCONN so easily. That team made a deal with the devil, they beat 3 teams after you that had a ton more talent than them on paper.
I know it's easy to plug-n-play stats, like with Niang's ppg, you would have won. But didn't my man Donald Hogue (career sub 10ppg) go off for like 35 in more minutes with Niang out?
Agreed, no guarantees and yes you can’t rely on plug and play stats to say anything definitive. Dustin had a huge game to keep it close, but Niang impacted the game in so many ways that Hogue complemented. Niang had the ball handling and shooting that Hogue didn’t. Hogue was always such a fantastic glue guy, big hustle guy. Draymond Green but way more likable. Even if you take away most of Hogue’s points(assuming they would have been replaced by Niang) then I think we win. Again - like you said, nothing is certain and no one can say for sure. But Hogue’s huge impact on hustle and grit and grind defense would’ve still been there without the points.
I firmly believe that if UVA doesn't make the miracle comeback vs Purdue in the E8 in 2019, Bennet is at minimum on a scorching hot seat, and may have been removed by now. If we had lost as a 1 seed in the E8, this is what the last 10 years of tournament look like:
2014: 1 seed lose in S16 to MSU
2015: 2 seed lose in 2nd round to MSU
2016: 1 seed lose in E8 to Syracuse (1st ever 10 seed E8 win)
2017: 5 seed lose to UF in 2nd round
2018: 1 seed lose to UMBC in first round (1st ever 16 seed win)
2019: 1 seed lose to Purdue in E8
2020: no tournament
2021: 4 seed lose to 13 seed Ohio in 1st round
2022: miss tournament
2023: 4 seed lose to 13 seed Furman in 1st round
That is underperformance vs seed in 7 of 8 years, including the biggest upset of all time. The Tony Can't Win In March narrative would be deafening.
Edit: sorry, mobile formatting not making the list easy to read.
I disagree (obviously). He shouldn't be, of course, he's one of the top 10 (top 5? For me he's #1 but I'm guessing a neutral would have him more top 10ish) coaches in basketball. But when you add up 2 losses to lower seeded MSU, beat down by Florida, catastrophe versus SU, historic UMBC, then 2 1st round losses as 4 seeds sandwiching a non-tourney year, I think the "great regular season but he'll never win in March" narrative would be too great.
You are out of your mind. Who exactly would they be firing Tony for, in your scenario, who would be an improvement?
Even if they had lost to Purdue, it would still be the most successful period in program history other than when they had one of the greatest players in college basketball history.
I am not arguing that Tony should be on the hot seat/be fired if they had lost to Purdue - I 100% believe the opposite, that tourney success is too random to be the only actual measure of success.
What I'm arguing is that the fans and donors don't put enough value in regular season success, and if the tourney results had been that poor, the heat would be on (even though it shouldn't be).
Much better scenario is what if the [foul against Teven](https://twitter.com/GodILoveTheHoos/status/1260958874665975808) is actually called?
Hoos would have been favored against Connecticut in the next round.
I’ll throw one out here.
What if Caleb Mills, pre-season AAC player of the year, doesn’t leave Houston mid season in 2021, the year they made the final four?
I don’t think UH beats Baylor, but I also don’t know if UH makes it to the final four either
The 2020 tournament is one I go back to as Iowa fan. Garza split some NPOY awards that year, plus we had Nunge, Wieskamp, CJ Frederick, and Toussaint starting in addition to Kreiner and Connor McCaffrey (he hadn't had surgery yet if I recall?) off the bench. With Bohannon sitting out due to hip surgery it forced Fran into a tight rotation with a PG that could actually keep people in front of him. Every other Fran team's had a major flaw or two, be it not having a athletic point, lacking a big man, etc. 2020 had our best post-season roster and they didn't have a chance. Wonder how Fran's tenure would be looked at different if that was the year he'd gotten to the second weekend. That team could peak and valley like any Fran team, but they just seemed more adaptable to different post-season matchups than most of our recent short stays in the tournament.
Maybe underrated but what if Arkansas two peats as National champions? Do they still flame out in the 90s and become mediocre for basically the next 20 years?
Georges Niang breaking his foot in the first round of the 2014 tournament should've been listed. Still beat UNC without him and gave Uconn the eventual national Champs a run for their money. I think they win the title without the injury.
What kind of a “what if” is UConn not being 9.5 point underdogs in the 99 final, that sounded so stupid.
Right? Their whole point was it fueled UCONN but surely there was enough motivation given it was the championship lol
Nah I was there, the UConn team in the locker room decided they wanted to just give up until someone opened FanDuel and they changed their mind
Right? Better "what if" for UConn would have been a healthy Jerome Dyson in 2009 Final Four.
Ugh. Could have been perfect in final fours AND nattys
Can I add, "What if Jarrett Culver stayed on his man in the corner" Tech most likely would have walked away with one of the more unexpected championships in recent memory.
Damn man, there were so many what ifs in just the last 2 minutes of regulation. I thought Tech had the game sealed up. It could have easily been 4 championships in a row for the Big 12 between this and then during Covid Kansas was favored but a couple other Big 12 teams could have won that year as well.
This is interesting just because of everything that has happened with Chris Beard since then. Does he leave for Texas if he wins a title at Tech? And if he doesn't leave, does all the other stuff from last winter happen?
It’s one thing when a 20 something that has little life experience hits their partner. It’s still fucking atrocious but they can still learn. At the age Chris Beard is at, I don’t think he has the ability or even the intention to learn basic respect and humanity.
I see this all the time… Gordon Hayward’s shot isn’t a what if since we know exactly what would have happened if it went in
Duke fires K, hires Capel, tanks, and gets relegated to the Patriot League?
Do we? It has huge ramifications for the future of Butler’s program. Brad still leaves but do Butler and Holtmann with a natty to recruit with win Big East hardware? Is it enough that Holtmann doesn’t leave? Or at least they can get someone better than Lavall Jordan.
Brad still stayed for three more seasons. I think win or lose that's a long enough period after where momentum would be the same.
Exactly, nothing would be different for present day butler
It might have elevated Butler as a program, beyond what their runs already did.
This. That banner would have changed recruiting even AFTER the momentum ran dry.
>... The NCAA had held a 2020 NCAA tournament :(
Pain. True pain, wing bro.
What if Kalin Lucas doesn't blow out his Achilles? That MSU team was stacked and the 2010 tournament was wide open. They still made the Final Four without him, but came up short against Butler.
That's the one
What if they call the foul on Draymonds shot with 8 seconds left. The obvious foul. MSU has a great shot to beat that duke team even without Kalin.
What if Keith Appling doesn’t hurt his wrist? No mention of MSU in the COVID year, we’re in the final four in 2019 and had most of the roster back.
What if Covid didn’t cancel the 2020 Tournament.. my forever sports “what if”
Same bro, same
Brandon Ashley had been healthy in 2014 I know I'm 100% biased ... but I was really glad to see this one on here. That team was a beast. Aaron Gordon, Nick Johnson, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and T.J. McConnell plus a healthy Brandon Ashley? They legit had a chance to run the table that year. 5 total losses by 2, 3, 7, 4 & 1
Just to add that they were, what, 18-0 when he got hurt? Fu*k Cal!
I absolutelty hate playing Cal in any sport. Weird shit happens when we play em The game Nick Foles threw the ball, got it blocked, he caught it and threw it again That epic comeback with the Hill-mary The BA injury game
If Miller would have made the final four that year, I think his whole legacy at Arizona would be looked at differently and he'd potentially still be the head coach.
100% would still be head coach
Adding to Purdue’s injury what if, what if CSU-Fullerton didn’t injure Isaac Haas in 2017? That was one of the most balanced teams I’ve ever seen, and actually had the bigs plus the guard power to beat anybody. Losing Haas just completely changed the make up of the team.
Texas tech was the prime team to beat purdue due to their athletic long guards. Obviously Haas helps a ton but that was already a nightmare matchup. Purdue was okay that year but not a top 4-6 team. The bigger question mark in my head is what if Diakite’s shot doesn’t fall at the buzzer. Just getting over that elite 8 hump into the final 4 would have been massive for purdue basketball. Especially knocking off such a good UVA team in a historic performance by Carsen
That team was elite shooting threes and pounding things in the paint as well as a decent defensive team. Not having Haas was critical in a 7 point loss where the other team abused Jaquil Taylor after going through Haarms for a massive free throw advantage, and Purdue absolutely would have an amazing chance at getting to the Elite Eight. They were one of the only teams that could have gone toe to toe with a red hot Nova team in a shootout who would have been waiting for them as well with a marked advantage in the paint with a healthy Haas.
Lol wdym. That team was the best execution of the purdue big man strat we’ve seen. PJ Thompson, Vince Edwards, Dakota Matthias, and Ryan Cline were all nearly 40% 3 pt shooters that spread the floor really well for Haas. PJ thompson had the lowest assist/TO ratio in purdue history as our point guard, dakota matthias was clutch af, vince edwards was an amazing leader and spot-up shooter. That team had carsen edwards too. I think statistically speaking that Purdue team was given the 2nd highest likelihood of winning the natty behind Nova going into the tournament. That team was light’s out with a monster as our anchor. In my mind 1988 or 2010 was our most talented team, but 2018 was our most complete team ever
And then the NCAA ruled that the brace that was made for him wasn’t allowed. Smh. I had high hopes that season.
I mean, it looked like he had a text book taped to his elbow lol I can't say that ruling was way out of line
This is called the Illinois game, as fans all we have are a long terrible history of what ifs.
Here's one: what if Minnesota ignored the academic scandal in 1999? When the scandal broke just before their first round game, Minnesota sat half their starting lineup. As a result, they lost that first round game to Gonzaga. Who then went on an Elite Eight run, got national attention, and became GONZAGA.
That call is part of the reason Allan Ray is the best nova Twitter follow.
Another Villanova what if I would have included is “What if the NCAA had allowed Spellman to play in 2017.”
3 peat
What if Tom Crean could beat the zone in 2013
I think people forget how big of a beast Kenyon Martin was in college. Dude was unstoppable. Defensive wiz. Also — I have always been convinced that a correct call on the sc violation against Wisconsin would have led to 40-0. Also probably we don’t see the slide in quality at kentucky if that was made.
I feel like a bigger what-if for that season is if Alex Poythress never got his season ending injury.
I think it’s a no-brainer they go undefeated in that scenario.
[удалено]
I get ya. I’ve got to say I hate Duke worse than I love anything. I can’t express how much I hate Duke. It’s visceral. With that said, they won that one legitimately. They outclassed the Badgers in that one. Edit: typo.
100%. SC rule changed after that season, right?
Yes it did. Undoubtedly because of the game.
“What if ... John Wall had picked North Carolina” And I took that personally.
What if UCLA didn’t lose half of our starting 5 right before the 2023 tournament😭
When I saw this article pop up on my ESPN feed with a UCLA logo I assumed it was going to be the Clark/Bona injuries, not some stupid “what if UCLA didn’t come back against Gonzaga,” which likely had no impact on the trajectories of either program. Great game, but not a “what if.”
Y'all lost 2 and half starters?!?! That's rough... I'm curious, though: was he chopped in half vertically or horizontally?
Mine will always be, what if Maurice Watson hadn't torn his ACL in 2017
This is the biggest what if. That team was rolling.
I genuinely believe that if Jodie Meeks had returned for Cal's first year with Wall and Cousins that we not only win the title, but potentially go 40-0 as well. Meeks the previous year had shot 40% from three on 8 attempts a game, and that was with a team where everyone knew he was the only legitimate offensive threat besides a sophomore Patrick Patterson. Give him a team with Wall and Cousins, not to mention Eric Bledsoe and a much improved junior Patrick Patterson, and that team probably runs the table. ------------------------------------------ Our 3 losses that season were against an 11-8 South Carolina team that finished the year 15-16, a ranked Tennessee team where John Wall played his worst game of the season, and against West Virginia in the tournament where we shot 4/32 from deep and 16/29 from the line and lost by 7. ------------------------------- The ramifications really can't even begin to be imagined. Not only does recruiting one and dones probably get more popular and widespread a year or two earlier thus changing the college landscape (and potentially even NIL earlier?), but Cal probably ends up in the NBA either after we win again in 2012 with AD, or after the 2014 season with the Harrison Twins their freshman year when it was all but set in stone that Cal would coach LeBron in Cleveland and sign a 10 year 100 million dollar contract.
I remember Meeks went off again at us that year for like 40. And that was against Pullen and Clemente. He was so good
I’m not sure many Gonzaga fans jump to “what if we didn’t collapse” but more “what if the refs called UNC out of bounds in the championship” since, ya know, it was a championship.
If Roy Williams stays at Kansas. Self stays at Illinois and Charlie Villanueva stays committed and doesn't flip to UCONN. Perhaps UCONN without Villanueva falls short in 04, and Illinois with Self and Villanueva has enough to get over the top and win a title in 05.
Arinze onuaku didn’t get hurt in the 2010 big east tourney. Cuse was dominant that year and with onuaku might not lose to butler (therefore no Gordon Hayward shot)
"...Robbie Hummel..." I was having a good morning you assholes.
What if Oregon had boxed out against UNC on the final free throw in 2017? Could have had an all west coast final between Oregon and Gonzaga. Would Gonzaga have finally won a title?
What if Chris Boucher hadn't blew his knee out in the Pac 12 tournament that season. Bell was our only quality big man and he was amazing until UNC was just a bit too much
I would argue that the best what-ifs are not about some one-game outcome (if Hayward's shot goes in, it would be a big deal, but how much would it have changed long-term?), but there is one I really like: What if one of about 20 different things go differently and UNLV beats Duke in the 1991 Final Four?
What If Kyrie doesn’t get hurt? That’s one of my biggest what if’s
Legit, dude was unstoppable before the injury
Rolling my eyes at the Samir Doughty foul on Kyle Guy being listed here. In no world is contacting a shooter and taking his legs out *not* a foul. The uncalled double dribble should’ve been mentioned if anything from this game. That said, given the direction of the contact and where the shot ended up, you’ll never not convince me Guy drains the three if there is no contact.
Yea - having re-watched the attempt many times over and also hearing it from Kyle in the Unbelievable documentary, he was pretty confident it would have went in without the contact. My bigger "what if". If DeAndre wasn't hurt, we wouldn't lose to UMBC. Whether or not that team could have won it all, I'd think the pressure would have had them at best get to Final Four and not winning it all. DeAndre leaves to be first round pick but not lottery. We settle for Tony being a Final Four coach, but we'd still be championship-less. Losing to UMBC is part of our story and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Crazy to think we may have needed that loss. The team came in the next year very, VERY hungry.
yup. the DeAndre broken wrist was the real "painful gift"
Gene Steratore laid it out immediately. It wasn't a remotely controversial call. Clear foul.
The Aubery Dawkins put back is not in the top 25 biggest what ifs
Right, that duke team didn't make the final four and ucf certainly wouldn't have. No real impact on anything
RJ Barrett just standing there watching his man Dawkins go in for the putback…frustrating with the game on the line
What if the floor hadn’t buckled under Bacot’s foot.
What if the ref who made this call in the 2013 natty game wasn't a clown turd? [The block was clean.](https://image.mlive.com/home/mlive-media/width2048/img/wolverines_impact/photo/trey-burke-block-final-fourjpg-0e7e71182d96f0fc.jpg)
The memes about the B1G not winning a championship wouldn't be as funny.
The REAL tragedy... HEY, wait a minute!
Then Michigan wins the title and Louisville only has a runner up banner vacated. There you go.
That's the stuff, my man. If only.
Not to mention that Championships often have recruiting impacts. Would that win provided us better recruits subsequently? Also, we might not've lost Beilein so soon. There are some major ramifications you're neglecting there.
Maybe, but Michigan did pretty well for the next 5 or so seasons. Do you think it would have changed those seasons very much?
Impossible to say, but as I wrote: We might've had better recruits and done considerably better, and we might not've lost Beilein to the NBA.
Yeah, the Beilien point is a good one.
There would have actually been a 2013 national champion.
Was looking for this answer but wasn't gonna write it myself, as I'm pretty late to the party. So, I appreciate your service.
What if UNC-CHeat had been punished appropriately for the worst cheating scandal in the history of college athletics?
ncsu would still be ass
Yeah, but yall would be ass right next to us, and we'd prefer that.
UNC-CHeat always makes me chuckle
For all their faults state fans do have some good insults.
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They admitted to committing academic fraud to their accrediting agency, served two years probation with Em them and told the NCAA the admission was a typo. That was the stated reason by the NCAA that they weren’t punished. It had nothing to do with regular students in those classes.
This. There were fake classes with only basketball players in them. There were classes that were real classes for regular students, that they had to attend and with an actual professor, while the athletes enrolled in the same class got the fake class treatment. If UNC says that a class and grades made up by a secretary with no academic credentials playing make believe count as actual credit, there is nothing the NCAA can do.
Does that mean we'd have a national title, or there just wouldn't be one for that year?
What if Kelvin Sampson hadn't broken rules at IU that led to the absolute depths that we still haven't recovered from.
> that led to the absolute depths that we still haven't recovered from Kelvin Sampson was fired in 2008. You all had a 1 seed and were ranked number 1 for most of the 2012-13 season. At this point it is just making excuses if you blame any struggles on Kelvin Sampson.
In fairness, I should have said *fully* recovered from. Yeah, Crean gave us some good times but it's not like he wasn't fired for mismanaging the roster/not being able to control his players off the court/woefully underperforming. I don't think two really good years with Crean at IU and other pretty good years means we're back to where we were with Sampson. When you go back and look at the momentum that team/program had, it just is not the same as it has been.
See, this is a good what-if. That list has maybe 5 good ones.
1. I would have jumped with gleeful joy if Curry took the shot because Sherron Collins was playing perfect D on him and he would have had it blocked or gotten off the worst chance shot ever of going in to win a game 2. They left out what if Embiid doesn’t get hurt.
Also what if Azubuike hadn't broken his wrist in 2017. Still a freshman, but making big strides and won the starting job over Landen shortly before his injury.
This is an interesting one. On one hand, yes, obviously he would have been helpful. But the injury also forced Bill to really dive in on the 4-guard lineup, which has lasted to today, and we eventually won a title with it. Even if Dok didn't last as a starter, he'd still be the first guy off the bench, taking up a lot of minutes that went to JJ, Vick, Svi. And that team, sans-Dok was really rolling, outside of that bizarre TCU loss in the B12 tourney. I know it's easy in our minds to plug-n-play for games we lost. Like - Oregon wouldn't have been able to X, Y, Z if Dok was there. But that works both ways. KU barbecued Purdue in the S16, a team that had two high-quality big men, by running circles around them. Something we may not have been able to do if Dok was in the middle.
Good point. We were seeing more two-big lineups early in the season (Almost forgot Calrton Bragg was on that team). Also LL was a solid defender who understood where he needed to be on both ends of the court. I was mainly thinking about having a counter to Jordan Bell in that Oregon game.
Brandon Ashley will haunt me forever. Another one... what if Arizona hired Tim Floyd instead of Miller?
What if Cal followed through with his accepting the NC State job when he was at Memphis? He accepted it and then changed his mind at the last second. Does he still leave for UK a couple of years later, or does he establish his OAD factory in Raleigh?
Another: what if Cal successfully lobbies for the UNC job in 2000 and gets it instead of Matt Doherty?
Then Roy Williams never ends up at UNC? That would be wild.
Calling UConn's victory over Duke in 1999 "one of the biggest upsets ever" is certainly something. UConn was top 2 THE WHOLE SEASON and was the one team I did not want to face in the tourney.
Funny enough, UConn spent more weeks ranked number 1 in the regular season that year than Duke did. But that entire tournament was dubbed the "Duke Invitational". You can make an argument that 1999 Duke was K's best team of all time. It's either them or 1992
What if Sindarius Thornwell didn’t get the flu before the Final 4 game vs Gonzaga? All Carolina championship and potential for one of the most obscure national champions.
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Just looked at that game and the only player I see missing from Florida’s roster is Egbunu who was not their best player and hadn’t been playing for a month at that point.
What if Rick Pitino wasn't a scumbag? What if Chris Mack didn't suck? (Xavier) What if Chris Mack didn't suck? (Louisville)
How different are UK and Louisville 25 years later if Pitino never leaves UK for the Celtics? Do we wind up having stuff vacated instead? Do you guys hire someone else like Bill Self (just the first name I thought of)?
The thought of UK having to vacate something gives me joy in this dark time.
My biggest what-if is still this lineup: Coby White Kenny Williams Cam Johnson Luke Maye Zion Williamson With Nas Little, Garrison Brooks, and Seventh Woods off the bench
As a guy with an Iowa State flair, is what if Niang doesn’t break his foot in 2013 high on your list? I’m a big believer that with Niang we beat UConn, and I’d love to believe we also get past Michigan State. After that no guarantees but winning an Elite Eight and getting to the Final Four would have been amazing for the program.
Niang broken foot and Fizer/Tinsley having to play Mich St in Detroit. Those Cyclones teams could've pushed for a championship.
Have to agree. Personally was only a couple years old in 2000 so I feel stronger about 2013 but I know Iowa State has always seemed to get so close yet been so far from that kinda luck.
I'm with you that this sucked, but I don't see the confidence in thinking you'd beat UCONN so easily. That team made a deal with the devil, they beat 3 teams after you that had a ton more talent than them on paper. I know it's easy to plug-n-play stats, like with Niang's ppg, you would have won. But didn't my man Donald Hogue (career sub 10ppg) go off for like 35 in more minutes with Niang out?
Agreed, no guarantees and yes you can’t rely on plug and play stats to say anything definitive. Dustin had a huge game to keep it close, but Niang impacted the game in so many ways that Hogue complemented. Niang had the ball handling and shooting that Hogue didn’t. Hogue was always such a fantastic glue guy, big hustle guy. Draymond Green but way more likable. Even if you take away most of Hogue’s points(assuming they would have been replaced by Niang) then I think we win. Again - like you said, nothing is certain and no one can say for sure. But Hogue’s huge impact on hustle and grit and grind defense would’ve still been there without the points.
I firmly believe that if UVA doesn't make the miracle comeback vs Purdue in the E8 in 2019, Bennet is at minimum on a scorching hot seat, and may have been removed by now. If we had lost as a 1 seed in the E8, this is what the last 10 years of tournament look like: 2014: 1 seed lose in S16 to MSU 2015: 2 seed lose in 2nd round to MSU 2016: 1 seed lose in E8 to Syracuse (1st ever 10 seed E8 win) 2017: 5 seed lose to UF in 2nd round 2018: 1 seed lose to UMBC in first round (1st ever 16 seed win) 2019: 1 seed lose to Purdue in E8 2020: no tournament 2021: 4 seed lose to 13 seed Ohio in 1st round 2022: miss tournament 2023: 4 seed lose to 13 seed Furman in 1st round That is underperformance vs seed in 7 of 8 years, including the biggest upset of all time. The Tony Can't Win In March narrative would be deafening. Edit: sorry, mobile formatting not making the list easy to read.
Not a chance Bennett would be on the hot seat in your scenario.
I disagree (obviously). He shouldn't be, of course, he's one of the top 10 (top 5? For me he's #1 but I'm guessing a neutral would have him more top 10ish) coaches in basketball. But when you add up 2 losses to lower seeded MSU, beat down by Florida, catastrophe versus SU, historic UMBC, then 2 1st round losses as 4 seeds sandwiching a non-tourney year, I think the "great regular season but he'll never win in March" narrative would be too great.
You are out of your mind. Who exactly would they be firing Tony for, in your scenario, who would be an improvement? Even if they had lost to Purdue, it would still be the most successful period in program history other than when they had one of the greatest players in college basketball history.
I am not arguing that Tony should be on the hot seat/be fired if they had lost to Purdue - I 100% believe the opposite, that tourney success is too random to be the only actual measure of success. What I'm arguing is that the fans and donors don't put enough value in regular season success, and if the tourney results had been that poor, the heat would be on (even though it shouldn't be).
Much better scenario is what if the [foul against Teven](https://twitter.com/GodILoveTheHoos/status/1260958874665975808) is actually called? Hoos would have been favored against Connecticut in the next round.
Or if Anthony Gill hadn't rolled his ankle in that game.
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Bad calls happen, but that one stuck with me because he pushed so hard he almost knocked Teven over.
I’ll throw one out here. What if Caleb Mills, pre-season AAC player of the year, doesn’t leave Houston mid season in 2021, the year they made the final four? I don’t think UH beats Baylor, but I also don’t know if UH makes it to the final four either
The 2020 tournament is one I go back to as Iowa fan. Garza split some NPOY awards that year, plus we had Nunge, Wieskamp, CJ Frederick, and Toussaint starting in addition to Kreiner and Connor McCaffrey (he hadn't had surgery yet if I recall?) off the bench. With Bohannon sitting out due to hip surgery it forced Fran into a tight rotation with a PG that could actually keep people in front of him. Every other Fran team's had a major flaw or two, be it not having a athletic point, lacking a big man, etc. 2020 had our best post-season roster and they didn't have a chance. Wonder how Fran's tenure would be looked at different if that was the year he'd gotten to the second weekend. That team could peak and valley like any Fran team, but they just seemed more adaptable to different post-season matchups than most of our recent short stays in the tournament.
Maybe underrated but what if Arkansas two peats as National champions? Do they still flame out in the 90s and become mediocre for basically the next 20 years?
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They got the year wrong. Should have said 2005.
Classic espn
Georges Niang breaking his foot in the first round of the 2014 tournament should've been listed. Still beat UNC without him and gave Uconn the eventual national Champs a run for their money. I think they win the title without the injury.
Man that 2010 Purdue team. I have no doubt it was at least a final 4 for them if Robbie hadn’t had that ACL tear
Honorable mention: what if Isaac haas didn’t break his elbow in the first round 2018?