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. . . that it was the national champions who knocked them put of the tournament? UConn ended the season for a lot of good teams this spring.

It should, they will be top 15 per season. The loss to Hall hurt more than the loss the uconn

Bill Marsh wrote:. . . that it was the national champions who knocked them put of the tournament? UConn ended the season for a lot. Of good teams this spring.

I think so. Whenever my team loses, I generally root for that team to do well so that I can say "well at least we lost to the champions."

If you are a Villanova fan; yes. Otherwise; not really.

Villanova has lost to the eventual national champion SEVERAL times recently. UNC in 2005, Florida in 2006, Kansas in 2008, UNC in 2009, and then Connecticut in 2014. Has to be some sort of record!

1997 Friars lost to eventual champion Arizona in the Elite 8 in overtime.

It is definitely something that Friar fans remember and talk about but to be honest I'm not sure fans of many other programs care about this or remember it.

Beyond Villanova fans, it won't make any difference, they beat them in an early round.

Teams lose to the eventual champion EVERY round every year - *shrug* - people don't remember the losers before the final four and sometimes they don't even remember them either.

AT THE TIME, it looked like a bad loss for Villanova. Most people expected UConn to go out in the next round to Iowa State. All the talk was about how Wichita State got screwed having to play Kentucky in the round of 32, that it was unfair for WSU to get stuck with a team that was really much better than an 8-seed.

IN RETROSPECT, UConn was even better than Kentucky, and it was equally "unfair" for a 2-seed to get stuck with playing them in the round of 32.

GOING FORWARD, I think that season ending loss won't look so bad as people evaluate teams for next year. CBS has ranked Villanova #11 and ESPN has them ranked #13 in their respective "way too early" preseason rankings. I think that Villanova may fair even better when time to put this in perspective has set in. So, I'm guessing they'll be ranked even higher when the polls come out next fall.

BTW, ESPN also has Georgetown in their top 40.

Bill Marsh wrote:AT THE TIME, it looked like a bad loss for Villanova. Most people expected UConn to go out in the next round to Iowa State. All the talk was about how Wichita State got screwed having to play Kentucky in the round of 32, that it was unfair for WSU to get stuck with a team that was really much better than an 8-seed.

IN RETROSPECT, UConn was even better than Kentucky, and it was equally "unfair" for a 2-seed to get stuck with playing them in the round of 32.

GOING FORWARD, I think that season ending loss won't look so bad as people evaluate teams for next year. CBS has ranked Villanova #11 and ESPN has them ranked #13 in their respective "way too early" preseason rankings. I think that Villanova may fair even better when time to put this in perspective has set in. So, I'm guessing they'll be ranked even higher when the polls come out next fall.

BTW, ESPN also has Georgetown in their top 40.

As a fan of a team that has gone out plenty in the early rounds no it doesn't change the perception at all. It didn't change the perception when Georgetown lost to Davidson in North Carolina in the 2nd round even though they made it to the elite 8 and almost beat eventual nation champ Kansas. It didn't change perception when Georgetown lost to VCU in the first round despite the fact they made it to the Final 4. Nor did it matter that FGCU made the Sweet 16. They're all still lumped together as bad losses.

hoyahooligan wrote:

Bill Marsh wrote:AT THE TIME, it looked like a bad loss for Villanova. Most people expected UConn to go out in the next round to Iowa State. All the talk was about how Wichita State got screwed having to play Kentucky in the round of 32, that it was unfair for WSU to get stuck with a team that was really much better than an 8-seed.

IN RETROSPECT, UConn was even better than Kentucky, and it was equally "unfair" for a 2-seed to get stuck with playing them in the round of 32.

GOING FORWARD, I think that season ending loss won't look so bad as people evaluate teams for next year. CBS has ranked Villanova #11 and ESPN has them ranked #13 in their respective "way too early" preseason rankings. I think that Villanova may fair even better when time to put this in perspective has set in. So, I'm guessing they'll be ranked even higher when the polls come out next fall.

BTW, ESPN also has Georgetown in their top 40.

As a fan of a team that has gone out plenty in the early rounds no it doesn't change the perception at all. It didn't change the perception when Georgetown lost to Davidson in North Carolina in the 2nd round even though they made it to the elite 8 and almost beat eventual nation champ Kansas. It didn't change perception when Georgetown lost to VCU in the first round despite the fact they made it to the Final 4. Nor did it matter that FGCU made the Sweet 16. They're all still lumped together as bad losses.

UConn is not Davidson, or VCU, or Florida Gulf Coast. And they didn't lose in the Sweet 16, or the Elite 8, or the Final 4. In fact, they didn't lose at all.