Oregon 2017: KU had more talent
Nova 2016: KU had slightly more talent but it is a push a worst.
Wichita 2015: KU had more talent
Stanford 2014: KU had much more talent
Kentucky 2012: Great coaching job, better teams with more talent and eventually lost to a very talented team.
VCU 2011: LOL
Northern Iowa 2010: LOOOOLOOL
MSU 2009: MSU was maybe slightly more talented but it was close.
2008: Title
2007: Lost as 1 seed in EE but UCLA was just as talented
2006: Bradley, no comment
2005: bucknell, no comment
You act like he was trotting out MAC level talent onto the court every year. He losese to much less talented teams every year except for a year here or there.
Oregon 2017: Not much of a talent difference. And KU's issue last year was depth(like this year). If we stayed out of foul trouble, we were great, but when we were in foul trouble we struggled. Josh Jackson(our best defender) picked up his 2nd foul within like 2 or 3 minutes and had to sit(and when he came back in, he played not to foul). We struggled to defend early, and Oregon also hit something like 15 or 16 out of 17 shots at one point including a couple of banked threes. They got a big lead and that's when our own shooting got tight(we were shooting fine before that). Still, we got to within 3 points at the end, but Oregon once again, hit a shot with a second left on the shot clock with a guy breathing down his neck. We had some shit luck there.
Nova 2016: Talent was a push, and Nova was the hottest team in the country. Though I do think that KU wins it all if they win this game. Still, it went down to the wire, and Nova hit a clutch three late, and imo if they miss that three, KU wins the game. That's just the way it goes.
Wichita 2015: KU had more overall talent, but Wichita State was criminally underseeded and playing with a chip on their shoulder. They made the final four the year before. This was an unfair matchup for KU, and I still hate the tourney committee for it.
Stanford 2014: KU didn't have much more talent. If we have Joel Embiid, we win that game easy I think. But once we lost him, we went from a legit top 10 team to a very pedestrian team. We lost our only legit big man and had to play a team that had two seven footers. This was the worst possible matchup we could have had.
Michigan 2013: Michigan played in the national title game, so it's not like they weren't a very good team. Yet even so, we led the game comfortably for 35 minutes until Trey Burke went Stephen Curry on us. Not much we could have done about that. We even guarded him, and he stepped back and hit them with a hand in his face. He tied the game with a shot from at least 10 feet behind the line, or we win that game. This was just shit luck.
Kentucky 2012: Didn't expect much from this team. They played beyond expectations and ran into a juggernaut UK team in the title game. Played as good as they could.
VCU 2011: This was a big loss. But people seem to forget that this team made the Final Four. They upset a lot of teams. They had a habit of upsetting teams in the tourney. Criminally underseeded. Still, we should have won this game.
Northern Iowa 2010: Northern Iowa was a good team, but this was still a bad loss.
MSU 2009: MSU was the better team. Still, KU had them down with under 2 minutes left, but missed a couple of FTs late. But we played very well in this game. Just lost to a better team.
2008: Title
2007: Lost to the 2 seed IN CALIFORNIA. The tourney committee did us no favors there.
2006: No comment. This was a truly bad upset.
2005: We were pretty banged up in that game with some of our best players hindered by injuries. Still should have won that game though. This was a terrible loss.
2004: Took GT to overtime in the Elite Eight, as a 4 seed. Played over our seed here. Self's teams tend to perform better in March when they have fewer expectations(less pressure).
Yeah, we've lost some games we shouldn't have lost, but we haven't had any truly embarassing upsets for quite a while(hopefully not jinxing us here). We do play tight in the Elite Eight though. I also think we've had more than our share of bad luck go against us. It seems to me that we've had an insane # of teams hitting last second shots against us or shooting 95% from the FT line. I guess it's only fair that the title we won in that time came after hitting a last second three coupled with a couple of missed FTs by Memphis. But we've certainly had more of this luck go AGAINST us.
