What Are The Biggest Choke Jobs In College Basketball The Last 10 Years?
So it’s August and this is somewhat the dead time in hoops. We’re a little bit away from the start of preseason in the NBA, we’re past the July recruiting period, so really all we have are some international trips and any surprise trades. So with that in mind I decided August will be the time to reflect on the past and get yelled at by putting out different blogs involving the best/worst/rankings/whatever. So if you have something in mind, let me know. I started this with the 10 best programs in college hoops from the last 10 seasons.
Today we’re going to go with the biggest choke jobs in the last 10 years. Now, this is a bit different to look at just because the NCAA Tournament is an absolute luck of the draw combined with matchups in order to advance. We rarely see the best team in the country win the thing, let alone get to the Final Four consistently.
So with that in mind these were the 10 biggest choke jobs in college basketball for me. We’ll focus more on one game/team than the whole season in general. We’ll also try to take away any major injuries/suspensions as the biggest cause for the choke job. So something like Kendall Marshall’s injury in 2012 won’t be on here.
1. 2018 Virginia – lost to UMBC in Round of 64
I firmly believe you have to start with this Virginia team. You can’t be the first team to lose to a No. 16 seed and not be the biggest choke. I know De’Andre Hunter was injured, but it doesn’t matter when you’re playing a No. 16 seed. Virginia would have had a fairly comfortable path to the Final Four too with a win and the way the bracket broke. They would have went Kansas State, Kentucky, Loyola. They would have been favored in all of them. This tops the list.
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2. 2010 Kentucky – lost to West Virginia in the Elite Eight
This is the first Kentucky one to make the list. This Kentucky team had John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Patrick Patterson and DeMarcus Cousins. They were the best team in the country that year but ran into West Virginia, a team that dared them to shoot threes in order to win. Kentucky shot 4-for-32 from three and 16-for-29 from the free throw line.
3. 2015 Kentucky – lost to Wisconsin in the Final Four
I’m putting this one behind 2010 Kentucky because Wisconsin was a better team than WVU and matched up better with Kentucky. However, whenever you’re 38-0 and you don’t win a title, it has to count as a choke job. Kentucky had a chance to seal the game, but a couple of shot clock violations cost them the chance to advance to the title game. Most Kentucky fans would want this game back more and showed the beauty of a one-game advancement tournament.
4. 2016 Virginia – lost to Syracuse in the Elite Eight
Four names in and we have two schools listed. Virginia is high on this list because of its inability to close against Syracuse in the Elite Eight back in 2016. The Cavs, led by Malcolm Brogdon, were up 14 at halftime. They were also up 14 with 10 minutes to go. Then Syracuse put on the press and Virginia absolutely panicked. They were unable to get a stop after being one of the best defensive teams in the country that year and scored just 11 points in 10 minutes.
5. 2016 Michigan State – lost to Middle Tennessee State in Round of 64
The Michigan State team led by Denzel Valentine was a popular pick to win the whole thing. What’s even more brutal is how the bracket broke on their side. They would have played No. 10 Syracuse in the Round of 32, No. 11 Gonzaga in Sweet 16 and then Virginia in the Elite Eight. Middle Tennessee State shot lights out and held off Michigan State in a 15/2 upset. This is a bigger choke job than this year’s Michigan State team losing.
6. 2011 Pittsburgh – lost to Butler in Round of 32
Think about how this game went down. You had Pitt with a chance to win the game after a terrible foul by Shelvin Mack. When Gilbert Brown missed the second free throw (tied 70-70), Nasir Robinson hacked Matt Howard on the rebound to send him to the line. Howard hit one free throw to win 71-70. Pitt was the No. 1 seed and a favorite to make the Final Four in the bracket that featured Jimmer and Florida on the bottom half of it. Just a bizarre sequence to lose.
7. 2018 the city of Cincinnati – UC lost to Nevada in Round of 32, Xavier lost to Florida State
Another recent one as Cincinnati lost in one of the most heartbreaking ways if you’re a Bearcat fan. Cincinnati was up 22 points in the second half. Cincinnati didn’t make a bucket for the last 5 minutes and 45 seconds. What makes this even worse is again how the bracket broke. Cincinnati would have played Loyola next, which it matched up great against. In the Elite Eight it would have been Kansas State. If you really want to add in just the city of Cincinnati as a whole here, hours later Xavier blew a late lead to Florida State as well. Xavier was the No. 1 seed and up 12 with 10 minutes to go.
8. The 2 seeds in 2012 – Duke loses to Lehigh, Missouri loses to Norfolk State in Round of 64
Another double dip here as we had Duke and Missouri both losing on the same day to No. 15 seeds. Lehigh was led by CJ McCollum and Norfolk State had Kyle O’Quinn. That said, these losses shouldn’t have happened. Duke couldn’t stop McCollum as he had 30 points and Lehigh outscored Duke by 7 in the second half. O’Quinn had 26 points for Norfolk State as they were tied at half and held off Missouri in the second half. The fact it happened so close together adds to it for me as well.
9. 2017 Arizona – lost to Xavier in Sweet 16
This is a game where Chris Mack just absolutely outcoached Sean Miller despite Arizona being pretty loaded with Lauri and Trier leading the way. Arizona was the No. 2 seed and would have gotten to play Gonzaga, a team they are familiar with in the Elite Eight. On top of that if they got to the Final Four it would have been on the same side as South Carolina. Of all Arizona’s losses in the NCAA Tournament, this is the one that Sean Miller should want back the most.
10. 2015 Villanova – lost to NC State in Round of 32
This was the one where you started wondering if Villanova was ever going to stop losing early as a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. Nova, one of the best teams in the country this year – and a loaded year with Wisconsin, Duke, Kentucky and Arizona, had a bunch of talent that never should have lost here. Unfortunately there was a mistake late in the game where Dylan Ennis took the three that Nova needed instead of someone like Darrun Hilliard.