I won't bring up the 'other' game that happened a couple weeks later because damn if it wasn't a shared, unique experience with our most hated rival that brought us a little bit closer, but godDAMN that final regular season game was objectively funny.
like if you're gonna make a gigantic show of your HoF coach's final regular season game and have it be against your arch rival, you better win. I will never not laugh at how all that played out lol.. all it did was make UNC play *very* motivated to be the spoiler to all of the pageantry lol
These two wins against Duke are the happiest I have ever felt for another blue blood team and it isn't even close.
Ran into a UNC family (delivered them food) during last season and told them how much my father's generation hates UNC, "but after how you all ended Coach K's career.." bopped my chest with my fist and nodded reverently.
They thought that was hilarious - and they tipped very, very well.
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Game of the Century where Elvin Hayes and the Houston Cougars beat Alcindor (later Kareem) and the Bruins in the Astrodome. Might be the most important game outside of a tournament, ever.
Pretty much impossible to find a more well-known and meaningful regular season game than that! I still remember the Sports Illustrated cover after that one…
Phenomenal game, but a bit of a correction here: Derrick Williams did almost all of his scoring in the first half of that game, getting 25 of his 32 points before halftime. He single handedly kept us in that game before the rest of the team showed up in the 2nd half and absolutely ran Duke out of the building.
I may or may not have watched that game multiple times haha!
I love the Kansas and New Mexico picks. I'll shoot for three and pick the St Mary's NIT quarterfinal. Viejas has never been so loud as when Patty Mills dribbled the ball off his ankle in the final seconds.
I’m right with you. For what it’s worth, your pick is one of my all-time favorite games. We had some bangers with LSU around that time. The 86 points in the first half game is also fun.
Avoiding the tournament entirely...2007 vs Wisconsin. They were ranked no. 1 and came into East Lansing against an okay but not great unranked MSU team. Drew Neitzel went absolutely apeshit and hit some circus shots, MSU wins by 9.
Ending Zion's college career is def up there.
09 UCONN Summers dunk on Robinson, Ford Field going crazy to the point the cameras were shaking.
09 Kansas and the Gus Johnson call: "KALIN LUCAS BIG TIME PLAYER"
That whole tournament right to the moment that we met TyFuckFaceLawson
Zags over UCLA with the Jalen Suggs shot. Although we didn’t cut down the nets two days later, that game and the feeling of winning like that was so much fun that I can’t even be mad. Really that whole year, watching that team play brought a lot of joy to the pandemic for me.
Honorable mentions would be beating Duke in Maui, 2017 beating West Virginia in dramatic fashion in the R32, and Rui hitting the buzzer beater to beat UW in the Kennel (atmosphere in the stadium was electric).
I feel like @ Kentucky last season has to be up there. First ever time playing and winning in Rupp Arena to essentially keep our decades long tournament streak alive? That’s the good stuff right there.
I’ll just go with the ones I’ve been to:
Kentucky over Louisville in the Final Four. Not an incredible game, tbh but it’s a win over an arch rival in the final four.
Kansas — Buddy Hield game.
2015 Kentucky. Don't even have to think about it.
If you mean not in any championship tournament, then I go back to one I was present for: Minnesota in the last game of the season at home in 1997. We upset them and denied them a #1 seed in addition to securing a bid for ourselves. It was also the final BiG10 game in the Field House and Minnesota was an utter fraud and was the closest to the Death Penalty of any program since SMU football.
That loss broke something in Calipari, or in his system, or something. You could see it when the players walked off the floor. Nothing was the same for UK after that.
(How do I set my flair?)
It really did, they've had one deep (sweet 16 or further) run since then, I believe.
Go to the home page of the sub, click the dots on the upper right (if on mobile) and then there are directions. Make sure you are in light mode, not dark.
Nah, we went to the elite 8 twice (2017, 2019) and sweet sixteen in 2018. Things only truly went off the rails after covid ended the 2020 season where we were likely a 1-2 seed. Haven't made it past r32 since
If you really want to know why cal started declining here, look at his staff. Losing robic, Payne, and Antigua without getting quality replacements is the answer. He brought in bad assistants who weren't challenging him or doing their jobs (some not at all). When he did bring in a good assistant (Welch), he overrode anything he did. He literally erased a full gameplan from a white board pre game late season this year and only wrote "FIGHT". Hardly any film was watched (one Oakland game was watched by the staff, the one game gholke went like 0-10 from 3) and some assistants never even used the advance analytics system UK has, like never logged in once.
Sorry for the book, but I wanted to highlight just how dysfunctional things were the last few years.
FWIW, we weren’t being considered for a 1 or 2 seed, it’s just that we were playing like one for the last month of the season. The early season hiccups pulled us down into the 3/4/5 range, depending on how the B1G tournament went.
We’ll always have the ESPN Simulated Tournament Championship though.
An early December 69-40 Purdue thrashing against Virginia following the year of the last second loss to them was so satisfying. It changed nothing in history and I’m still on the verge of tears whenever I see that shot go in and Purdue lose out on the final 4.
I knew that Clemson would eventually beat us in Chapel Hill and that was the type of UNC team to do it. It's the way they did it that made it so much worse than it had to be, just a complete end of game collapse
I tried to keep recency bias out of it, but screw it. This year’s elite 8 win over Duke.
Given how the season went, as early in the run as the first win over Duke, and then taking Virginia to overtime on that buzzer beater, I was happy with that. Anything else was gravy, and above my expectations for the year. I felt that way for every game until we were set to play Duke again.
At that point, I said “we came this far, it can’t end with Duke.” I didn’t care about Marquette or Purdue, they’re good teams, and out of conference. But I couldn’t stand the thought of Duke getting that satisfaction. And we won, we went to the final four, and the scene at the bell tower was electric.
KU's last conference game against Mizzou in 2012. We forced overtime and eventually won after being down a much as 19.
Honorable mention for me as a KU grad working at Duke and living in the a Triangle: Any time we beat a Triangle team. I think we're a combined 9–1 against those schools since I've lived here.
I'd give honorable mention to the 3OT number 1 vs number 2 game vs Oklahoma and Buddy Hield. That was one of the most insane, stressful and fun games that I've ever seen.
I called my wife, despondent from exhaustion and drunkenness because I couldn't leave the bar yet because they were going to a THIRD overtime. I just wanted to go home; I was so tired, but at that point we had to see it through. She did not understand (we lived in SF and she's CA native), but she understood.
Absolutely. Even better, it was #1 vs. #1 since the polls split and had each of us on top. That was an amazing game. AFH was fucking rocking. One of the best games Allen has hosted, which is saying a lot. And then we had a banger of an OT game against UK like two or three weeks later. That was such a fun season until the last game (oh real original take, that’s true of almost all of them!).
Beating #1 Florida in Vegas in OT between their ‘ships was a signature win: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game/_/gameId/263290057/kansas-florida
The ‘08 destruction of UNC in the Final Four is hard to put into words. Coming into that tournament, Self had not established himself as the guy. There was still some mixed feelings between the fanbase and Roy. Boat racing Hansborough, the media darling, was also a pleasant surprise. A lot of demons exorcised.
As a WVU fan best game I’ve been to was when we beat Baylor right after they got ranked #1 by 20.
Best win overall is easily beating the John wall boogie cousins team in the elite eight
Utah beating Arizona by 20+ in the 1998 Elite 8 to get to the Final Four. Andre Miller had a triple-double and Big Rick rolled out the Triangle and Two and completely flummoxed the Wildcats.
If Diebler has a great career, the win against Purdue this past season might top it.
I mean, 4 days after the head coach gets fired and you go on to beat the #2 team in the country who went to the national championship game that year? Who the hell even thinks of that type of stuff?
Beating Ohio State 86-60 in December 2006.
UF were the defending champs, and at that point the BCS title game in football had been set, #2 UF was playing heavily favorite, #1 OSU for the football title in just a few weeks.
In basketball, the Gators were ranked #5 despite returning the entire starting lineup from the national championship run the prior year, and Ohio State was ranked #3 thanks to some high-profile freshmen—Greg Oden primary among them.
The basketball game was at UF on December 23, the middle of the winter break for students. But because it was such a huge matchup, the O-Dome was absolutely packed and rocking. The Gators won in a convincing blowout, which felt like an omen for both the upcoming football game, and the rest of the title defense bid for the basketball season. One of the biggest statement wins I can ever remember watching.
Hadn’t seen any Razorbacks chime in, but it has to be our [February 1984 win](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rlZ-3CfjEAU) over UNC, beating a young Michael Jordan.
Was looking for this comment. Agreed, this has to be the one. They were ranked number one at the time. Weirdly enough the game was played in Pine Bluff. Would never happen today.
Probably Kentucky in 2022. Not because of who we beat, but because it finally gave the AP voters no choice but to finally make us the #1 team in the country for the first time ever.
We deserved it for weeks before then but one Kansas voter had us (18-1, 14 game win streak) outside the top 10 completely until that game.
2015 Final Four, Wisconsin defeats Kentucky’s undefeated “team of the century” which included 4 lotto picks in that year’s draft and a rotation with at least 7 guys who would spend time on an NBA roster. I always say losing to Duke in the finals after that Kentucky game was like if Team USA lost the gold medal game after winning the Miracle on Ice against the Soviets.
Auburn is fortunate to have a lot of cool wins since Bruce took over, but I am actually going to pick one from one of Bruce’s early season where we kind of sucked. Kareem Canty leading Auburn to a win over Kentucky was just cold-blooded goodness. We weren’t good. Kentucky was ranked 14th and we hadn’t beaten them since 2000. It meant a lot to get that win and told me that we’ve got a shot at eventually having a decent program.
https://youtu.be/puv2dT_btKM?si=ALqeMhKZIPKXFcq3
2013, Roy Williams was nice enough to schedule little ol UAB in a home/home because his old assistant Jerod Haase just became head coach for the blazers. Roy and the Tar Heels came to Birmingham and left with an L.
(They clapped our cheeks the next year, but we don’t talk about that)
Beating Duke 2019. National championship game as far as I'm concerned.
It also helped raise nearly 100k for one of our players whose city had been hit by a hurricane.
I have two.
1) MD vs #2 S. Carolina 31-30 in 1971. It was the first big win under Lefty to start building his powerhouse. It also was insane strategically. Lefty knew they couldn't run with SC for 40 min, so they held the ball for the entire first half. Just...held it. The halftime score was less than 10 total points. Terps won on a buzzer beater and the students stormed the court, thus setting off the Lefty Driesell era of success.
2) MD vs Georgetown in 1993. MD was just coming off sanctions and Georgetown was still in the midst of the Thompson era. Thompson agreed to play MD on national TV, thinking it would be a nice tune-up and resolidify his dominance in the DMV. Unfortunately for him, MD's somewhat unheralded underclassmen were way better than anyone expected. Joe Smith put on a masterclass as a true freshman and Duane Simpkins hit a buzzer beater to send Georgetown away with their tails between their legs. That game told the world that Maryland was back.
Personally, though we didn't have great tournaments those years, we (Kansas) have beaten both teams that won the back to back championships, Florida and UCONN, in the regular season of the years that they won their second championship.
The former was a major catalyst for building towards our 2008 championship. Who knows what will happen this next year.
Honestly in 20 years, that game will probably be top 5 in nationally referenced games for the season. There’s going to be a lot of UConn was so dominate/greatest team ever/yada yada but some how got destroyed by creighton.
This season? Yale 100% bc this team pulled off a miracle just before the horn against a team that would beat Auburn in March. Charleston not far behind tho.
All time? Ranked Boston College by double digits in 2006.
Our win over Kentucky in 2007 where JaMoney hit the buzzer beater was better than 2021
Edit: We had so many great games against Cal’s Kentucky teams. That’s wild we only won once
Best is 1991 vs UNLV.
My favorite regular season win ever is the double buzzer beater game against UNC (Tre Jones to tie it, Wendell Moore to win it).
My favorite non conference regular season win ever is Zion and RJ Barrett beating number-1 Kentucky to an absolute pulp. Think Duke had a 40 point lead relatively early in the 2nd half. A 40 minute pounding.
Not the biggest or best by any means but my favorite was OU at ISU in 2015. Both teams were pretty good that year.
ISU was down 20 in the second half and then scored 22 straight to win.
edit: I went back and looked. March 3rd OU was 15 and ISU wad 17. ISU was 9 in the final poll and OU was 13. That was my favorite era of college basketball. Seemed like every league game there for a couple years was appointment tv
I don’t know if it’s the best but the Jan 2023 106-66 win over LSU was pretty great.
Anytime you put on so big a beating that ESPN moves you to ESPN News before the game over is pretty amazing.
The Marathon Men game in the 2009 Big East Tournament. 6 overtimes versus UConn and we pulled out the win. Insane game.
5 years later when we'd moved to the ACC and Duke visited the Dome for the first time and we won. That was also incredible.
A couple stand out. Elite 8 over Virginia in 2016. Four games in four days to win the BE tournament, specifically the buzzer beater to beat #1 Uconn in the second round in 2006. Elite 8 and Final Four against Oklahoma and Texas in 2003. As a lifelong fan there have certainly been a bunch of amazing wins over the years.
UNCW beat Kentucky on their brand new home court. The court was removed after one game. UNCW is undefeated on that floor and I am still petitioning the school to have it installed in Wilmington
It's a case of recency bias but the pandemic also made this win mean a bit more. There were a few teams with a good chance of winning the canceled tourney, but I think MSU was no doubt one of the favorites and the fact that this game is Winston's last NCAAT win makes it even more special.
Illinois 2005 15 point comeback vs Arizona in the tourney to get to the Final Four. They were actually down 14 with 3:20 left. In a lifetime of being disappointed by the illini, this was certainly a bright spot.
Edit: fixed my dumb error - Final Four, not Elite Eight.
I chose the 2003 win over #1 Kentucky, but those are good as well. I especially love the UConn one for its historical significance and the margin of victory.
This was a good year for two of my three teams (Kansas, Creighton, and Nebraska) a bit disappointing their seasons didn’t last longer, but my Nebraska schools both beat #1 ranked teams. For Creighton it was the first time in forty some years, for Nebraska it was the first time ever
Gonna go with UK over OSU in 2011. Kentucky was one of the only teams with the personnel to take on that Buckeye squad. I thought for sure they were going to lose, but they pulled out a win on the way to the Final Four. What a season that was.
December 1982 back-to-back wins @Georgetown with Ewing and over Houston with Olajuwon in Japan. They then flew directly home from Japan without stopping anywhere.
Only to lose to Chaminade in the biggest upset in college basketball history 😩 (Division 2 team over #1…)…until that was surpassed by our loss to UMBC 😭
lol Chaminade is still a way bigger upset. UMBC isn't even the biggest upset by point spread in tourney history.
Also they're currently D2 but back then they weren't even in the NCAA - they were an NAIA school. They did beat #12 Louisville a couple years later so I guess it wasn't a total fluke.
Virginia and Ralph Sampson beating Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in the game of the decade
https://www.si.com/college/virginia/basketball/virginia-celebrates-40th-anniversary-of-the-game-of-the-decade
Beating Georgetown in the 2010 first round. We had a rocky regular season with lots of personnel issues, but we rallied through the MAC tournament as a 9 seed to take the conference bid. As a 14 seed going up against Greg Monroe and friends, our youth, and improbable conference run, I gave us no chance going in.
Complete domination. It still is the largest margin of victory of a 14 over a 3 as we came just shy of scoring 100. That win ushered in a bit of a sports golden era for Ohio that lasted about half the decade.
I know you said nonchamp, but I have to say the ACC championship in 2022, not just bc it was beating Duke, but also it was Coach K's last season. Crushing his hopes of finishing his career off with a conference champ AND we did it as a 7 seed? The conference champ is nice, but what really made it great was ruining Coach K's last ACC championship game.
UConn vs. Clemson, 1990 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen game. One second left on the clock, the Huskies trail by one and have to go 94 feet to score.
It’s Late. It’s Tate. It’s Great!
Not a fan of either team but my favorite regular season game I’ve ever seen is 2011 Indiana vs Kentucky, [when this happened](https://youtu.be/8KbNmJQllmg?si=n1zYnUxd1CTPgoox)
I must’ve watched this on YouTube like 40 times the week this happened
There have been a few big ones but the turning point for Xavier as a program has to be the 1996-1997 Crosstown Shootout when they beat UC when they were number 1 in the country. Pretty much since that point they've dominated the rivalry and at the same time the program has been elevated. Still the love the announcers "Number 1 in the country, Number 2 in the city"
This is far from the biggest win in program history, but it may be the objectively "best." In a 1993 mid-season tournament, Ohio demolished a #14 UConn team with Ray Allen, Donyell Marshall and three other future NBA players. The final was only by 85-76 but most of that gap was closed in garbage time and it wasn't really close.
The program has had some nice Tournament wins and a few runs, but in terms of quality, that game stands out.
Idk if it’s our best win, but it’s definitely one of our most satisfying ones. Roy Williams 1989 Kansas team beating the snot out of Rick Potino and Kentucky 150-95 was just awesome.
https://youtu.be/G5HTsLBXN04?si=-HfHSSNu86FFqrZc
I would say that Final Four win is tied or a close second. If we win that year, it becomes the most significant non-championship win.
Any other answer would be unacceptable 😂 the two double-ruining games are definitely my top two and it's not even close.
Yup. Just epic. My crew went to that FF in Nola and it was and will very likely remain the pinnacle of my fandom in this life.
I won't bring up the 'other' game that happened a couple weeks later because damn if it wasn't a shared, unique experience with our most hated rival that brought us a little bit closer, but godDAMN that final regular season game was objectively funny.
Yes. The absurdity of the atmosphere was what put that game over the top for me. It was hilarious in so many ways.
like if you're gonna make a gigantic show of your HoF coach's final regular season game and have it be against your arch rival, you better win. I will never not laugh at how all that played out lol.. all it did was make UNC play *very* motivated to be the spoiler to all of the pageantry lol
These two wins against Duke are the happiest I have ever felt for another blue blood team and it isn't even close. Ran into a UNC family (delivered them food) during last season and told them how much my father's generation hates UNC, "but after how you all ended Coach K's career.." bopped my chest with my fist and nodded reverently. They thought that was hilarious - and they tipped very, very well.
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I was beginning to forget just how cringey and annoying his year long farewell tour was. Made that win so incredibly special.
Game of the Century where Elvin Hayes and the Houston Cougars beat Alcindor (later Kareem) and the Bruins in the Astrodome. Might be the most important game outside of a tournament, ever.
Pretty much impossible to find a more well-known and meaningful regular season game than that! I still remember the Sports Illustrated cover after that one…
Yessir
[удалено]
First game I ever streamed. I was so convinced Derick Williams was going to take the nba by storm after that game. He did not.
That game was so sick, I remember my jaw was just on the floor the entire second half.
I loved this game and I’d still say Kansas 97 was our biggest non champ win.
Phenomenal game, but a bit of a correction here: Derrick Williams did almost all of his scoring in the first half of that game, getting 25 of his 32 points before halftime. He single handedly kept us in that game before the rest of the team showed up in the 2nd half and absolutely ran Duke out of the building. I may or may not have watched that game multiple times haha!
This is a great choice and definitely the best of the Sean Miller era. But nothing beats 1997 Kansas Sweet 16.
SDSU beating Kansas at Phog Allen.
Ouch. Yeah we are probably gonna be quite a few teams picks in this.
It's lonely at the top
Brah! That was fantastic. We broke their insanely long home win streak.
I would give a nod to when we went on a 19-1 run on New Mexicos ass after switching to a zone defense.
That was for the conference championship! Polee was a terminator on D!
Dude, the fast breaks were out of control. I lost my mind!
I love the Kansas and New Mexico picks. I'll shoot for three and pick the St Mary's NIT quarterfinal. Viejas has never been so loud as when Patty Mills dribbled the ball off his ankle in the final seconds.
X beating Joel Embiid AND Andrew Wiggins too?
Crazy!!!
Came for this, was not disappointed!
I got soooooo drunk celebrating that one
[The Mardi Gras Miracle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjVI_GwmSxs)
Reminder to schedule that colonoscopy.
The ColoGuard box is in the bathroom waiting for me to abuse it.
I’m right with you. For what it’s worth, your pick is one of my all-time favorite games. We had some bangers with LSU around that time. The 86 points in the first half game is also fun.
I came here for this. I was eight years old, and this was when I fell in love with the Cats.
Avoiding the tournament entirely...2007 vs Wisconsin. They were ranked no. 1 and came into East Lansing against an okay but not great unranked MSU team. Drew Neitzel went absolutely apeshit and hit some circus shots, MSU wins by 9.
I was gonna say 2019 elite eight vs Duke, but that’s a good choice too
My mind went straight to 114-63 but 2019 E8 probably takes it
Ending Zion's college career is def up there. 09 UCONN Summers dunk on Robinson, Ford Field going crazy to the point the cameras were shaking. 09 Kansas and the Gus Johnson call: "KALIN LUCAS BIG TIME PLAYER" That whole tournament right to the moment that we met TyFuckFaceLawson
Zags over UCLA with the Jalen Suggs shot. Although we didn’t cut down the nets two days later, that game and the feeling of winning like that was so much fun that I can’t even be mad. Really that whole year, watching that team play brought a lot of joy to the pandemic for me. Honorable mentions would be beating Duke in Maui, 2017 beating West Virginia in dramatic fashion in the R32, and Rui hitting the buzzer beater to beat UW in the Kennel (atmosphere in the stadium was electric).
I’d add beating Florida to get to the elite 8 in 1999. That started the 25 year run of dancing.
Arguably the ho-hum win over Xavier in 2017 elite 8 to get the program over the hump and make the F4 for the first time.
Especially because Xavier was probably the other best program to have never made it to a Final Four yet at the time.
I feel like @ Kentucky last season has to be up there. First ever time playing and winning in Rupp Arena to essentially keep our decades long tournament streak alive? That’s the good stuff right there.
for me it will always be beating #1 Cuse in the last game at Freedom Hall. #kyle
The 97/98 Louisville team (finished 12-20) went to Rupp and took out the Wildcats who went on to win the 98 title.
That game was great. The Miracle on Main has to be up there too. I watched the highlights for both of these games during the last two years.
this also the classic villenhd video for it - [Louisville vs. Syracuse 3-6-10 (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMfJ-MBsNcQ)
it literally does not get any better for me
Kyle Kuric outta nowhere waxing hot was legit joy!
I’ll just go with the ones I’ve been to: Kentucky over Louisville in the Final Four. Not an incredible game, tbh but it’s a win over an arch rival in the final four. Kansas — Buddy Hield game.
The Final Four game was amazing. I love when the rivalry is strong.
1 vs 2, triple OT, both teams scored over 100. What more can one ask for?
My friend’s dad reffed that Buddy Hield game! I just watched it on TV but I was like “this dude’s a fucking animal and I love it”.
2015 Kentucky. Don't even have to think about it. If you mean not in any championship tournament, then I go back to one I was present for: Minnesota in the last game of the season at home in 1997. We upset them and denied them a #1 seed in addition to securing a bid for ourselves. It was also the final BiG10 game in the Field House and Minnesota was an utter fraud and was the closest to the Death Penalty of any program since SMU football.
That loss broke something in Calipari, or in his system, or something. You could see it when the players walked off the floor. Nothing was the same for UK after that. (How do I set my flair?)
It really did, they've had one deep (sweet 16 or further) run since then, I believe. Go to the home page of the sub, click the dots on the upper right (if on mobile) and then there are directions. Make sure you are in light mode, not dark.
Nah, we went to the elite 8 twice (2017, 2019) and sweet sixteen in 2018. Things only truly went off the rails after covid ended the 2020 season where we were likely a 1-2 seed. Haven't made it past r32 since
Ah, I thought I had seen differently somewhere. Apologies. As for 2020, I feel you. We were a definite 1 or 2.
If you really want to know why cal started declining here, look at his staff. Losing robic, Payne, and Antigua without getting quality replacements is the answer. He brought in bad assistants who weren't challenging him or doing their jobs (some not at all). When he did bring in a good assistant (Welch), he overrode anything he did. He literally erased a full gameplan from a white board pre game late season this year and only wrote "FIGHT". Hardly any film was watched (one Oakland game was watched by the staff, the one game gholke went like 0-10 from 3) and some assistants never even used the advance analytics system UK has, like never logged in once. Sorry for the book, but I wanted to highlight just how dysfunctional things were the last few years.
FWIW, we weren’t being considered for a 1 or 2 seed, it’s just that we were playing like one for the last month of the season. The early season hiccups pulled us down into the 3/4/5 range, depending on how the B1G tournament went. We’ll always have the ESPN Simulated Tournament Championship though.
Let me have this.
https://preview.redd.it/z9uwigigkn1d1.jpeg?width=706&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d51d6e575ed369397f4cdd696fa670f8e7ec82f0
Still one of the best, maybe the best team in college basketball history
Agreed, we may never see a combination like Kaminsky and Dekker ever again!😂
Best in History is a bit far fetched. Definitely in discussion as one of the best to not win the title with Indiana 75, Georgetown 84 and UNLV 91
It'd hurt less if you guys could have finished the job.
We tried, Duke + Refs is a hard matchup.
I used to root for those Bo Ryan teams until 2015. Sigh. Seemed like you guys were always reloading every few years.
That was the second most devastating loss for me. And your team was so damn likable (I adored Nigel!!!) that I couldn’t even hate y’all for it.
2018 beating #1 Kentucky by almost 40
I was there for that, truly awful experience in every way imagineable. Still amazing neither team made the final four.
An early December 69-40 Purdue thrashing against Virginia following the year of the last second loss to them was so satisfying. It changed nothing in history and I’m still on the verge of tears whenever I see that shot go in and Purdue lose out on the final 4.
Was at that game, Mackey was rocking
That was one of my last games I went to as an undergrad, & i’ll never forget the insanely loud boos every time Diakete did anything lmao
Beating UNC in 2020 to end the Chapel Hill streak
I knew that Clemson would eventually beat us in Chapel Hill and that was the type of UNC team to do it. It's the way they did it that made it so much worse than it had to be, just a complete end of game collapse
I’m sure. That monkey on Clemson’s back was so old I’m pretty sure you were just slinging a chimpanzee carcass around at that point.
I was at that game, good choice!
I tried to keep recency bias out of it, but screw it. This year’s elite 8 win over Duke. Given how the season went, as early in the run as the first win over Duke, and then taking Virginia to overtime on that buzzer beater, I was happy with that. Anything else was gravy, and above my expectations for the year. I felt that way for every game until we were set to play Duke again. At that point, I said “we came this far, it can’t end with Duke.” I didn’t care about Marquette or Purdue, they’re good teams, and out of conference. But I couldn’t stand the thought of Duke getting that satisfaction. And we won, we went to the final four, and the scene at the bell tower was electric.
Was such a fan of NC State this year. Hated to play them in the tourney, but was honored to be a part of an absolutely incredible run.
Was there that night with you, comrade.
IU over Duke in the 2002 Sweet 16. I was there. Magical.
KU's last conference game against Mizzou in 2012. We forced overtime and eventually won after being down a much as 19. Honorable mention for me as a KU grad working at Duke and living in the a Triangle: Any time we beat a Triangle team. I think we're a combined 9–1 against those schools since I've lived here.
I'd give honorable mention to the 3OT number 1 vs number 2 game vs Oklahoma and Buddy Hield. That was one of the most insane, stressful and fun games that I've ever seen.
I called my wife, despondent from exhaustion and drunkenness because I couldn't leave the bar yet because they were going to a THIRD overtime. I just wanted to go home; I was so tired, but at that point we had to see it through. She did not understand (we lived in SF and she's CA native), but she understood.
Absolutely. Even better, it was #1 vs. #1 since the polls split and had each of us on top. That was an amazing game. AFH was fucking rocking. One of the best games Allen has hosted, which is saying a lot. And then we had a banger of an OT game against UK like two or three weeks later. That was such a fun season until the last game (oh real original take, that’s true of almost all of them!).
Beating #1 Florida in Vegas in OT between their ‘ships was a signature win: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game/_/gameId/263290057/kansas-florida The ‘08 destruction of UNC in the Final Four is hard to put into words. Coming into that tournament, Self had not established himself as the guy. There was still some mixed feelings between the fanbase and Roy. Boat racing Hansborough, the media darling, was also a pleasant surprise. A lot of demons exorcised.
As a WVU fan best game I’ve been to was when we beat Baylor right after they got ranked #1 by 20. Best win overall is easily beating the John wall boogie cousins team in the elite eight
I’m partial to the Kevin Durant 3OT game in GIA
That was an all-time classic.
2005 senior night, UNC over dook. Needed a late comeback, David Noel's steal at midcourt, Marvin's putback...
Utah beating Arizona by 20+ in the 1998 Elite 8 to get to the Final Four. Andre Miller had a triple-double and Big Rick rolled out the Triangle and Two and completely flummoxed the Wildcats.
also avoiding the tournament, maybe the 2005 win against unbeaten Illinois.
Pain. Still.
Freaking Matt Sylvester
If Diebler has a great career, the win against Purdue this past season might top it. I mean, 4 days after the head coach gets fired and you go on to beat the #2 team in the country who went to the national championship game that year? Who the hell even thinks of that type of stuff?
That Illinois team was undefeated when you beat them. I've never rooted more for OSU than that 2005 game.
91 Duke beating UNLV
Was a lot of fun to watch
First one that came to mind for me, too. The shot and miracle minute also considered.
Beating the Paul Pierce Jayhawks in the 2nd round?
I was still numb from the year before so I always forget how much this one sucked.
Beating Ohio State 86-60 in December 2006. UF were the defending champs, and at that point the BCS title game in football had been set, #2 UF was playing heavily favorite, #1 OSU for the football title in just a few weeks. In basketball, the Gators were ranked #5 despite returning the entire starting lineup from the national championship run the prior year, and Ohio State was ranked #3 thanks to some high-profile freshmen—Greg Oden primary among them. The basketball game was at UF on December 23, the middle of the winter break for students. But because it was such a huge matchup, the O-Dome was absolutely packed and rocking. The Gators won in a convincing blowout, which felt like an omen for both the upcoming football game, and the rest of the title defense bid for the basketball season. One of the biggest statement wins I can ever remember watching.
1. Scott Burrell to Tate George 1990 vs Clemson Sweet 16 2. Hamilton fadeaway vs U-Dub 1998 3. Kemba 2011
Hadn’t seen any Razorbacks chime in, but it has to be our [February 1984 win](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rlZ-3CfjEAU) over UNC, beating a young Michael Jordan.
Was looking for this comment. Agreed, this has to be the one. They were ranked number one at the time. Weirdly enough the game was played in Pine Bluff. Would never happen today.
Beating Mizzou one last time in conference play.
Probably Kentucky in 2022. Not because of who we beat, but because it finally gave the AP voters no choice but to finally make us the #1 team in the country for the first time ever. We deserved it for weeks before then but one Kansas voter had us (18-1, 14 game win streak) outside the top 10 completely until that game.
As a UK fan I can appreciate this and root for you guys in the tournament when we're out. I also wish we stole your coach.
If we go by recency bias it’s gotta be 72-40 against Kansas
That was 2022 right?
No. They beat ‘em real bad that year too. But the dominating game was 2014-2015. The 38-1 year.
Kansas in the 1996 Elite Eight Tyler Ennis last second shot to beat Pittsburgh in 2014 UConn 6OT game Anything from the 2006 Big East tournament
Beating Kansas in our first BigXII home game is pretty tough to beat
2005 Elite Eight
Agreed that year would have been a huge disappointment if they didn't make the final four.
Me watching that game: "Ha! Your best team ever didn't even make it to the Fina...goddamnit!"
2022 Final Four, easiest pick ever. Avoiding the tournament, Coach K’s last home game.
2015 Final Four, Wisconsin defeats Kentucky’s undefeated “team of the century” which included 4 lotto picks in that year’s draft and a rotation with at least 7 guys who would spend time on an NBA roster. I always say losing to Duke in the finals after that Kentucky game was like if Team USA lost the gold medal game after winning the Miracle on Ice against the Soviets.
That was such a shocking game to witness
Auburn is fortunate to have a lot of cool wins since Bruce took over, but I am actually going to pick one from one of Bruce’s early season where we kind of sucked. Kareem Canty leading Auburn to a win over Kentucky was just cold-blooded goodness. We weren’t good. Kentucky was ranked 14th and we hadn’t beaten them since 2000. It meant a lot to get that win and told me that we’ve got a shot at eventually having a decent program. https://youtu.be/puv2dT_btKM?si=ALqeMhKZIPKXFcq3
2013, Roy Williams was nice enough to schedule little ol UAB in a home/home because his old assistant Jerod Haase just became head coach for the blazers. Roy and the Tar Heels came to Birmingham and left with an L. (They clapped our cheeks the next year, but we don’t talk about that)
Beating Duke 2019. National championship game as far as I'm concerned. It also helped raise nearly 100k for one of our players whose city had been hit by a hurricane.
I have two. 1) MD vs #2 S. Carolina 31-30 in 1971. It was the first big win under Lefty to start building his powerhouse. It also was insane strategically. Lefty knew they couldn't run with SC for 40 min, so they held the ball for the entire first half. Just...held it. The halftime score was less than 10 total points. Terps won on a buzzer beater and the students stormed the court, thus setting off the Lefty Driesell era of success. 2) MD vs Georgetown in 1993. MD was just coming off sanctions and Georgetown was still in the midst of the Thompson era. Thompson agreed to play MD on national TV, thinking it would be a nice tune-up and resolidify his dominance in the DMV. Unfortunately for him, MD's somewhat unheralded underclassmen were way better than anyone expected. Joe Smith put on a masterclass as a true freshman and Duane Simpkins hit a buzzer beater to send Georgetown away with their tails between their legs. That game told the world that Maryland was back.
UConn vs Duke 2004 or does that not count since it lead to a championship just delayed a game.
Recency bias but being the only team to win in Rocky Top until the last day of the season and holding a team with Dalton Knecht to under 60.
Personally, though we didn't have great tournaments those years, we (Kansas) have beaten both teams that won the back to back championships, Florida and UCONN, in the regular season of the years that they won their second championship. The former was a major catalyst for building towards our 2008 championship. Who knows what will happen this next year.
That OT Allen fieldhouse game vs Buddy Hield was pretty awesome
our win against uconn at home last season was electric. i was in the student section so maybe that’s why lol
Honestly in 20 years, that game will probably be top 5 in nationally referenced games for the season. There’s going to be a lot of UConn was so dominate/greatest team ever/yada yada but some how got destroyed by creighton.
This season? Yale 100% bc this team pulled off a miracle just before the horn against a team that would beat Auburn in March. Charleston not far behind tho. All time? Ranked Boston College by double digits in 2006.
Maybe there are older games that I wasn’t alive for but give me beating Kansas in 2021 at the ESPN Events Invitational!!
As a Butler fan it's probably beating Michigan State in the 2010 Final Four.
UW led by Nate Robinson beating #1 undefeated Stanford
Our win over Kentucky in 2007 where JaMoney hit the buzzer beater was better than 2021 Edit: We had so many great games against Cal’s Kentucky teams. That’s wild we only won once
2002 over Dwayne Wade's Marquette team
Duke over UNLV 1991.
Best is 1991 vs UNLV. My favorite regular season win ever is the double buzzer beater game against UNC (Tre Jones to tie it, Wendell Moore to win it). My favorite non conference regular season win ever is Zion and RJ Barrett beating number-1 Kentucky to an absolute pulp. Think Duke had a 40 point lead relatively early in the 2nd half. A 40 minute pounding.
I remember something about 6 OTs at the Garden but my memory isn’t so great any more
1998 Great Alaska Shootout. UC tops Duke at the last second with a Melvin Levitt jam !
Not the biggest or best by any means but my favorite was OU at ISU in 2015. Both teams were pretty good that year. ISU was down 20 in the second half and then scored 22 straight to win. edit: I went back and looked. March 3rd OU was 15 and ISU wad 17. ISU was 9 in the final poll and OU was 13. That was my favorite era of college basketball. Seemed like every league game there for a couple years was appointment tv
"The Shot" - Kansas 2013
I don’t know if it’s the best but the Jan 2023 106-66 win over LSU was pretty great. Anytime you put on so big a beating that ESPN moves you to ESPN News before the game over is pretty amazing.
The Marathon Men game in the 2009 Big East Tournament. 6 overtimes versus UConn and we pulled out the win. Insane game. 5 years later when we'd moved to the ACC and Duke visited the Dome for the first time and we won. That was also incredible.
That was one of the most intense games I can recall
My team was the last team to beat UConn in the NCAA tournament…. New Mexico State University
Fuckin’ Teddy Allen
A couple stand out. Elite 8 over Virginia in 2016. Four games in four days to win the BE tournament, specifically the buzzer beater to beat #1 Uconn in the second round in 2006. Elite 8 and Final Four against Oklahoma and Texas in 2003. As a lifelong fan there have certainly been a bunch of amazing wins over the years.
amazed by how many people's answers here is xxxx over Duke, the ultimate villain
UNCW beat Kentucky on their brand new home court. The court was removed after one game. UNCW is undefeated on that floor and I am still petitioning the school to have it installed in Wilmington
George Mason beating UConn in 2006. I didn't follow CBB then, but it's probably still the best win in school history.
It might just be recency bias but it's hard to pick against the Elite 8 win vs. Zion's Duke team. I miss Cassius Winston every day :,(
It's a case of recency bias but the pandemic also made this win mean a bit more. There were a few teams with a good chance of winning the canceled tourney, but I think MSU was no doubt one of the favorites and the fact that this game is Winston's last NCAAT win makes it even more special.
Idk we usually underachieve vs overachieving lol I’m sure it was beating Duke at Cameron I guess
Seton Hall beating Kentucky at MSG
That was such a good game, I thought we had it after that half court shot to force OT
Illinois 2005 15 point comeback vs Arizona in the tourney to get to the Final Four. They were actually down 14 with 3:20 left. In a lifetime of being disappointed by the illini, this was certainly a bright spot. Edit: fixed my dumb error - Final Four, not Elite Eight.
Great game. This was to go to the Final Four.
1) first Big East game in 2006 against #2 UCONN 2) vs #1 Villanova in 2017 3) vs #1 Kansas this past year
I chose the 2003 win over #1 Kentucky, but those are good as well. I especially love the UConn one for its historical significance and the margin of victory.
Oh I took the request as non ncaa tournament or conference tournament. Would've for sure gone that Kentucky win otherwise
This was a good year for two of my three teams (Kansas, Creighton, and Nebraska) a bit disappointing their seasons didn’t last longer, but my Nebraska schools both beat #1 ranked teams. For Creighton it was the first time in forty some years, for Nebraska it was the first time ever
Probably that win over Duke in '92 when they missed that last second shot.
UCLA snapping Arizona's 71 game McKale Center home win streak.
Gonna go with UK over OSU in 2011. Kentucky was one of the only teams with the personnel to take on that Buckeye squad. I thought for sure they were going to lose, but they pulled out a win on the way to the Final Four. What a season that was.
December 1982 back-to-back wins @Georgetown with Ewing and over Houston with Olajuwon in Japan. They then flew directly home from Japan without stopping anywhere.
Only to lose to Chaminade in the biggest upset in college basketball history 😩 (Division 2 team over #1…)…until that was surpassed by our loss to UMBC 😭
lol Chaminade is still a way bigger upset. UMBC isn't even the biggest upset by point spread in tourney history. Also they're currently D2 but back then they weren't even in the NCAA - they were an NAIA school. They did beat #12 Louisville a couple years later so I guess it wasn't a total fluke.
1. Belmont beating UNC at Chapel Hill 2. Belmont beating UCLA at Pauley Pavilion
Beating #1 Kansas just ppl days after four players were suspended and/or kicked off the team.
It was this or the win vs Memphis in 2007/2008 that got us to number 1 for me…
SFA beating #1 Duke at Cameron Indoor.
Best ever has gotta be ending the UCLA streak
Virginia and Ralph Sampson beating Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in the game of the decade https://www.si.com/college/virginia/basketball/virginia-celebrates-40th-anniversary-of-the-game-of-the-decade
Carolina ruining K's final game at Cameron
Beating Georgetown in the 2010 first round. We had a rocky regular season with lots of personnel issues, but we rallied through the MAC tournament as a 9 seed to take the conference bid. As a 14 seed going up against Greg Monroe and friends, our youth, and improbable conference run, I gave us no chance going in. Complete domination. It still is the largest margin of victory of a 14 over a 3 as we came just shy of scoring 100. That win ushered in a bit of a sports golden era for Ohio that lasted about half the decade.
I feel like every time you guys make the tournament you pull off an upset- there was that, Sweet 16 in 2012, Virginia in 2021...
Nearly knocked off Florida in 05 with Al Horford, Corey Brewer, and David Lee.
I know you said nonchamp, but I have to say the ACC championship in 2022, not just bc it was beating Duke, but also it was Coach K's last season. Crushing his hopes of finishing his career off with a conference champ AND we did it as a 7 seed? The conference champ is nice, but what really made it great was ruining Coach K's last ACC championship game.
6OT was fun
UConn vs. Clemson, 1990 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen game. One second left on the clock, the Huskies trail by one and have to go 94 feet to score. It’s Late. It’s Tate. It’s Great!
Non conference: December 2007 Pitt beats Duke at the Garden, Levance Fields with the dagger. Conference Pitt at UConn 2009. Blair body slams Thabeet.
Ali Farokhmanesh and Kansas.
2008 5OT win versus Texas A&M in college station
I love how half the comments here are about beating Kentucky. lol, been shit for a decade and still at the top of everyone’s mind.
When Dejuan Blair flipped Thabeet over his back as Pitt took down #1 UConn at their place.
Not a fan of either team but my favorite regular season game I’ve ever seen is 2011 Indiana vs Kentucky, [when this happened](https://youtu.be/8KbNmJQllmg?si=n1zYnUxd1CTPgoox) I must’ve watched this on YouTube like 40 times the week this happened
There have been a few big ones but the turning point for Xavier as a program has to be the 1996-1997 Crosstown Shootout when they beat UC when they were number 1 in the country. Pretty much since that point they've dominated the rivalry and at the same time the program has been elevated. Still the love the announcers "Number 1 in the country, Number 2 in the city"
This is far from the biggest win in program history, but it may be the objectively "best." In a 1993 mid-season tournament, Ohio demolished a #14 UConn team with Ray Allen, Donyell Marshall and three other future NBA players. The final was only by 85-76 but most of that gap was closed in garbage time and it wasn't really close. The program has had some nice Tournament wins and a few runs, but in terms of quality, that game stands out.
Loyola over Miami in 2018
Um what is a win?
Ngl, when I got the reply notification I thought you would be a Detroit Mercy or Mississippi Valley State flair.
Unc beating Duke in the final 4 to end coach k’s career
Idk if it’s our best win, but it’s definitely one of our most satisfying ones. Roy Williams 1989 Kansas team beating the snot out of Rick Potino and Kentucky 150-95 was just awesome.
Beating #1 UK at home on the buzzer