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Rank our best teams since the program came back

Notsince1985

Notsince1985

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Here are the choices (we don't play for a long time, so I'm bored, and don't want to grade my student's papers)...

Year: 1997-1998
Record: 18-11, 11-7 (Big East)
Postseason: #11 Seed in NCAA (first NCAA since 1960) / First Round of NCAA
Best Wins: #8 UConn, #19 West Virginia

Year: 1998-1999
Record: 23-7, 15-3 (Big East)
Postseason: #2 Seed in NCAA / Second Round of NCAA
Best Win: Beat #2 UConn in Storrs, #9 St Johns (twice), #18 Syracuse in Syracuse, Ohio State

Year: 1999-2000
Record: 23-11, 13-3 (Big East Co-Champs)
Postseason: #6 Seed in NCAA / Sweet 16
Best Wins: #18 UConn in Storrs, #18 St. Johns to share BE title, #18 (#3 seed) Ohio State in Second Round

Year: 2001-2002
Record: 24-8, 10-6 (Big East)
Postseason: #5 Seed in NCAA / First Round
Best Wins: #21 Indiana (National Runner Up), #17 UConn

Year: 2007-2008
Record: 23-11, 8-8 (ACC)
Postseason: #7 Seed in NCAA / Second Round
Best Wins: Mississippi State in Starkville, #4 Duke, #10 (Seed) St. Mary's in NCAA Tournament
 

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99,08 then the rest. Jack McClinton was one of the most exciting players I've ever watched.
 
I think '02 could have been the best with a competent coach. 2 NBA players + Darius Rice, but no depth. Imagine how could the 98-2000 teams could have been if Lucas Barnes had his head on straight.
 
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98-99 was the best. Tim James was the best I seen, Mcclinton was great but James did everything.
 
Watching Jack McClinton during the 2007-2008 season was amazing. Even though we only won 1 game in the tourney, it was an amazing experience and I am dying to get back there.
 
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I knew McClinton was something special when I went to see Miami-Northwestern in Evanston in '06. We were horrible that year, and lost by 1 or 2 to NW, but McClinton was unreal, scoring close to 30. He missed a 3 at the buzzer that would have won the game, and he was so upset that his teammates had to calm him down and literally carry him to the locker room. I knew at that moment there that we had something special.
 
Notsince1985 said:
I knew McClinton was something special when I went to see Miami-Northwestern in Evanston in '06. We were horrible that year, and lost by 1 or 2 to NW, but McClinton was unreal, scoring close to 30. He missed a 3 at the buzzer that would have won the game, and he was so upset that his teammates had to calm him down and literally carry him to the locker room. I knew at that moment there that we had something special.
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[video=youtube;EbzAGIbXIzE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbzAGIbXIzE[/video]
 
The 98-99 team had the most talent. In addition to beating eventual National Champ UConn in Storrs, we also nearly knocked them off at the Miami Arena. I forget if it was overtime or not, but I remember freshman John Salmons barely missing a game winning 3 at the buzzer. However, that team played a horrendous game against Purdue in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney. That was Tim James last year. We had some great games with a very good St. Johns team that year too.

The 99-00 team struggled early on due mainly to Johnny Hemsley's immaturity (mental, not skills). I remember them losing to Louisiana-Lafayette and Illinois State (or some other similar random teams) in a December tournament and Hemsley getting suspended for a few games. Once they gelled as a team, their tournament experience from the past 2 seasons really helped. We played Arkanss (who wasn't gonna make the tourney until they won the SEC tourney) in the first round, and Arkansas was never really in it. I remember it being the last set of games on the 2nd day of the tournament. Then we took out Ohio State in round 2. All I remember about the Tulsa game was Tulsa getting out to a big early lead, us coming back late in the first half, and actually taking the lead briefly (I think) but then Tulsa pulling away. I think Bill Self was Tulsa's coach, but I could be wrong.

I don't even want to discuss 01-02. Perry Clark, ugh. Missouri was winning big early in our NCAA tourney game and it wasn't pretty. It was one of the first games on the first day of the tourney. It always sucks to be the first team upset in the tourney, and I think we were it that year.
 
Hotel Ibis said:
The 98-99 team had the most talent. In addition to beating eventual National Champ UConn in Storrs, we also nearly knocked them off at the Miami Arena. I forget if it was overtime or not, but I remember freshman John Salmons barely missing a game winning 3 at the buzzer. However, that team played a horrendous game against Purdue in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney. That was Tim James last year. We had some great games with a very good St. Johns team that year too.

The 99-00 team struggled early on due mainly to Johnny Hemsley's immaturity (mental, not skills). I remember them losing to Louisiana-Lafayette and Illinois State (or some other similar random teams) in a December tournament and Hemsley getting suspended for a few games. Once they gelled as a team, their tournament experience from the past 2 seasons really helped. We played Arkanss (who wasn't gonna make the tourney until they won the SEC tourney) in the first round, and Arkansas was never really in it. I remember it being the last set of games on the 2nd day of the tournament. Then we took out Ohio State in round 2. All I remember about the Tulsa game was Tulsa getting out to a big early lead, us coming back late in the first half, and actually taking the lead briefly (I think) but then Tulsa pulling away. I think Bill Self was Tulsa's coach, but I could be wrong.

I don't even want to discuss 01-02. Perry Clark, ugh. Missouri was winning big early in our NCAA tourney game and it wasn't pretty. It was one of the first games on the first day of the tourney. It always sucks to be the first team upset in the tourney, and I think we were it that year.
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We lost to UConn in OT at the Arena in '99 in front of 15,000 fans. James hit a circus shot to send it to OT and Salmons had a 3 to win it in OT go half of the way down before coming out.
 
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Hotel Ibis said:
The 98-99 team had the most talent. In addition to beating eventual National Champ UConn in Storrs, we also nearly knocked them off at the Miami Arena. I forget if it was overtime or not, but I remember freshman John Salmons barely missing a game winning 3 at the buzzer. However, that team played a horrendous game against Purdue in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney. That was Tim James last year. We had some great games with a very good St. Johns team that year too.

The 99-00 team struggled early on due mainly to Johnny Hemsley's immaturity (mental, not skills). I remember them losing to Louisiana-Lafayette and Illinois State (or some other similar random teams) in a December tournament and Hemsley getting suspended for a few games. Once they gelled as a team, their tournament experience from the past 2 seasons really helped. We played Arkanss (who wasn't gonna make the tourney until they won the SEC tourney) in the first round, and Arkansas was never really in it. I remember it being the last set of games on the 2nd day of the tournament. Then we took out Ohio State in round 2. All I remember about the Tulsa game was Tulsa getting out to a big early lead, us coming back late in the first half, and actually taking the lead briefly (I think) but then Tulsa pulling away. I think Bill Self was Tulsa's coach, but I could be wrong.

I don't even want to discuss 01-02. Perry Clark, ugh. Missouri was winning big early in our NCAA tourney game and it wasn't pretty. It was one of the first games on the first day of the tourney. It always sucks to be the first team upset in the tourney, and I think we were it that year.
Click to expand...

Yeah I remember Hemsley got suspended for the ND game in 99-00. I just remember Brian Cardinal killing us in the 99 tourney.
 
Notsince1985 said:
I think '02 could have been the best with a competent coach. 2 NBA players + Darius Rice, but no depth. Imagine how could the 98-2000 teams could have been if Lucas Barnes had his head on straight.
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This. 97-98 was my freshman year and that team was way better than 18-11. Barnes was really **** good and I thought that he and Hemsley were going to terrorize the Big East together for years to come. Sad story. Here's a link to an article I found on him:


http://fiuathleticscom.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=print&thread=1379
 
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