What's your worst Gator basketball memory?

[General]

My freshman year in 1981. We started the seas. 4 and 1 and finished 5 and 22 if memory serves me correctly. I

[ApexNC]

Originally Posted by CASontag

Not sure if it was my worst memory but it was awfully bittersweet. So my memory would be when UF lost to Duke in the Final Four in 1994 NCAA tournament. I was so excited for UF to just make it to the Final Four (da meat hook!) but then they actually had a lead at the half and I thought they had a good chance to beat Duke! However they couldn't maintain the momentum of the 1st half and Duke managed to win (curse you Grant Hill!) but at least Duke ended up losing to Arkansas in the final. Was hoping for an all SEC final (maybe get revenge for an earlier 12 point loss at Arkansas) but it just wasn't meant to be *sigh*

Yeah, I was at that FF loss to Grant Hill. He single-handedly beat us in the second half. So glad to see Arky beat them

[LoyalGatorFan]

Last year's Louisville game is up there for me as well....I guess because its still pretty fresh in my mind...but also going back to a collective bad memory...the early 2000's when it seemed like every year UK would beat us in the final seconds...most notably @Rupp when that fn Tayshaun Prince was there....

[gatorbogey]

i think when we got positively pounded by michigan state in the tampa 'pod' - we were a 2 seed, in tampa, i think izzo's team was something like a 10 seed. we got slaughtered that evening. i sat next to some dweed - probably a local nole fan - who loved every second of it and his obnoxious kids.

the manhattan loss was humbling but at least i was driving around from meeting to meeting on I-95 during that embarrassment.

[regurgigator]

Various horrors seared indelibly in my mind:

I think Creighton was the worst with all the various unlucky bounces that went against us leading to the improbable final shot.

One regular season memory was when we lost to Bama in a game that I think cost us a share of the SEC title. We were up 1 and had the Bama guard boxed in on the baseline on the left side of the lane with nowhere to go. I was literally rising from my chair for a victory shout when a Bama player broke free on the right side of the lane (I think it may have been James White who lost his man) for the buzzer-beating layup to beat us

Losing to Butler in the Elite 8 hurt me a lot more than Louisville, because I was convinced (still am) that the refs had gotten Butler back in the game when we were about to blow it open in the 2nd half.

The last-second loss to Gonzaga - which was also pretty unlucky for us that the tip went in.

Another excruciating regular season loss was the one to UK where Drejer had 11 assists and should have had the game-winning 12th assist, but the refs called a charge when Drejer hit a UK player about a step and a half after releasing the pass. Pure BS call!

Losing to Mich St in the Final, because I'm convinced MSU shot the ball way better than they ever had before. Even Cleeves was hitting outside jumpers!

One that hasn't been mentioned: I believe it was Donovan's first post-season at UF and we were hosting an NIT game. We had the lead and lost the ball with a few seconds left. It was agony watching the opposing player dribble down the court and score the winning layup with just barely enough time on the clock to get the shot off.

[BA69MA72]

Losing Dwayne and Chatman to injury and Ahabism. That was a heckuva team.

[BA69MA72]

Originally Posted by regurgigator

Various horrors seared indelibly in my mind:


One that hasn't been mentioned: I believe it was Donovan's first post-season at UF and we were hosting an NIT game. We had the lead and lost the ball with a few seconds left. It was agony watching the opposing player dribble down the court and score the winning layup with just barely enough time on the clock to get the shot off.

Georgetown--I considered that. We were tied or 1 point ahead, and no one guarded the guy who drove the length of the court. Everyone there watched it in horror as it unfolded. We ended 1 game under 500 in Billy's 2d year. Would have ended 500 or better

[regurgigator]

Originally Posted by BA69MA72

Georgetown--I considered that. We were tied or 1 point ahead, and no one guarded the guy who drove the length of the court. Everyone there watched it in horror as it unfolded. We ended 1 game under 500 in Billy's 2d year. Would have ended 500 or better

Yep, slo-mo!!

It was off a turnover wasn't it? I think I recall Donovan kind of laying into the player who turned the ball over in post-game comments.

[madgator]

Originally Posted by GatorLurker

Hearing from an insider at a lunch time pick-up game that Vince Carter was going to UNC before the public announcement.

yeah that was pretty well known to everybody for about a year before the announcement.

Carter gave us a listen but was never really serious about us.

[don23lucia]

Originally Posted by gogators73

Besides the obvious ones like season ending losses...

I figured we might as well try this thread to keep us grounded as we pummel team after team.

I think mine has to be at Kentucky in 2003. I remember I was SO psyched for us to be #1 and then we were down 20 at half in Rupp. I remember it being a Monday game because I thought we got pummeled just hours after being named #1 but it says it was a Tuesday so maybe that bad memory is fading a bit.

If you go on UK message boards a lot of them still talk about that game as one of the top moments in Rupp Arena history.

Great thread and I remember so vividly how excited I was and how sad i was all in one day.

[appgator]

two stand out...

The Mich State Loss in the championship, and cant remember the exact year but gonna guess 00. Uf was favored big at UT, drove from Boone nc with my boss a huge UT fan and we got WAXED...

John

[HotlantaGator]

Originally Posted by 1bobcat

Loss to Syracuse in first ever Sweet 16.

That was mine too, I think we had a 7 point lead with 2 minutes left, got beat by Rony Siekaly...

[gatorev12]

2005 losing to Villanova. That hit David Lee and Walsh extremely hard--and my heart really went out to the two. Had the privilege of knowing both when at UF (not well, and mostly because I knew David Lee's girlfriend) and they genuinely loved the University and would have given anything they had to give Gator Nation our first basketball championship.

[madgator]

Originally Posted by HotlantaGator

That was mine too, I think we had a 7 point lead with 2 minutes left, got beat by Rony Siekaly...

that syracuse team was stacked though. didn't they also have Derrick Coleman and Sherman Douglas?


Billy Owens wasn't there yet.....


speaking of Rony Seikaly.....talk about a guy who has led a charmed life. dear lord

[co_gator89]

Mine have all already been mentioned. Creighton, Manhattan, and Gonzaga.

But Butler two years ago is particularly gut-wrenching to think about. Not a doubt in my mind that we would have waxed UConn in that title game had we gotten there.

[gatordavisl]

Originally Posted by ApexNC

The entire Don DeVoe season

No way, man! We had at least one good memory in there: Josie Grimsley - "He's a Skywalker!" with the win over Shaq, Stanley, and the LSU Tiggers.

[fox]

Capt. Ahab

Tennis anyone

Vernon

[gatorsfa]

I admire this thread. When I attended and long before that, we were a giant sucking noise. You read this and realize how much
Sloan the second time started a trend that Kruger continued and Billy has taken to the top. Instead of being a classic SEC school that gets crunched by UK and prepares for spring football, we expect to be a power. Ignoring the entitlement threads when people came on here when we were in the NIT with 20 win seasons and better, sanding to fire Billy. I guess that comes with the territory. Success breeds entitlement. But what a wonderful world we are in, where people are crushed when we lose final four or close. I pray my remaining days have threads like these. Beats heck out of watching us lose every recruit in the state while preparing for another losing season in the old gym and its aura of early American high school gym locker!

[NorthCaptivaGator]

Christian Drejer quitting mid season- a really low point in the Donovan era

[gulfgator]

Originally Posted by ApexNC

The entire Don DeVoe season

Dang, now look at what you've done... I have tried to completely blot that from my memory. ; )