Greatest teams ever NOT to win a National Championship

[Spike]

What do you guys think is the greatest college basketball team not to win a National Championship?

I pick the 1991 U.N.L.V. team with Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony and Anderson Hunt that lost to Duke in the Final Four. I remember U.N.L.V. was favored by about 20 points going into that game (no doubt, that being based on the fact that the Runnin' Rebels just destroyed Duke in the 1990 National Championship Game and they were returning most of their guys back for 1991). You would have won some big money if you had Duke that game, that's for sure.

[Ross]

The 1999 Duke Blue Devils. In my mind, they are up there with the '90 Rebels. They won 32 games in a row. Each of their two losses was by one point with Trajan Langdon screwing up in both. If they would have beat UConn, they would have gone down as one of the greatest very easily.

[Marc]

You know, that's a very good question. I think that talented UNLV team would be a great candidate.

[CameronCrazy]

I have to go with the 99 Blue Devils team too. those goofballs had no reason to lose at ALL that season. :mad:

[Spike]

Oh yeah, how could I forget about that Duke team. That was only the other year.

Another great team that didn't win it all was the 1988 Oklahoma Sooners with Mookie Blaylock at Point Guard, Stacey King at Center, Harvey Grant at Power Forward, Dave Sieger at Small Forward, and Ricky Grace at Shooting Guard. That team pressed full court most of the time and ran over everyone. They were exciting to watch and they lit everyone up. And they played in a conference, the Big Eight (now the Big 12) that was one of the better conferences in the country because along with Kansas and Oklahoma, Missouri was a national powerhouse at the time with Norm Stewart as their head coach. They also played a run and gun style that could put up a lot of points.

Anyways, Oklahoma ended up losing in the Monday night National Championship game to a Kansas team carried by Danny Manning. I remember the Jayhawks actually ran with Oklahoma for the 1st half and the score was tied at 50 all and that surprised a lot of people. But in the 2nd half they slowed it down and won by 4 points. That Kansas team kind of reminded me of the 1985 Villanova team. The Jawhawks were a 6th seed that year out of the Midwest region and a cinderella story. Another great job of coaching by Larry Brown.

[Spike]

I got to throw Kansas in 1997 in there.

With Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz, Scot Pollard, Jacque Vaughn and the like, that team was loaded. I'm still kind of shocked they didn't win it all.

[Marc]

How about the 2001-2002 Kentucky team? Okay, maybe not, but Tubby sure hyped it up at the beginning of the year. ("This is the most talented team I've ever worked with.") Well, I'm really excited about 2002-2003. Kelenna Azubuike and Antwain Barbour are two guys you'll be hearing about major, big-time as a Wildcat. :cool:

[#47]

Wow this is a good question, I wish I had more time tonight to think about this, but the first team that comes to mind is the '83 Houston Cougars. They had 5 future NBA players(Akeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Michael Young, Ricky Winslow and Alvin Franklin) 3 of them were first round draft picks(Olajuwon, Drexler, Young) and obviously 2 of them(Olajuwon, Drexler) are all time greats. They also had 2 other players who were drafted by NBA teams(Reid Gettys & Bennie Anders) but they failed to make NBA rosters. Phi Slamma Jamma was a great team, but they were beaten not by a better team, but more by the style of play back then............there was no shot clock back then, NC ST. pulled the ball out on them and held it. Great coaching move for a less talented team and it worked.