You’ve certainly read the headline somewhere by now: “Rock Choke Jayhawk.” There’s no other way to explain a team seen without a weakness and the prohibitive favorite to win the whole tournament instead losing in the second round. Since seeding began in 1979, just 18 No. 1 seeds have lost in the second round of the tournament. So where do the 2010 Jayhawks rank on the Top 10 No. 1 Seed Chokes? Read on.
10. 2002 Cincinnati
Cincinnati was the conference regular season and tournament champions and entered the tourney 30-3. The Bearcats’ leader, Steve Logan, was playing so well that several writers across the nation claimed that he, and not Duke’s Jason Williams, was the true player of the year. The Bearcats flexed their muscle in the first round, crushing Boston U. by 38 points.
Squaring off against a talented but inconsistent UCLA squad, Logan took just 18 shots and scored 18 points in a double overtime loss. His last points were with four-and-a-half minutes left in regulation. Defensively the Bruins and their coach Steve Lavin – who was on a scorching hot seat at the time – decided that if the Bearcats were going to win, it wouldn’t be because of Logan. Two defenders, usually players taller than 6-foot-5, smothered the shorter Logan all game and rendered him ineffective. The final result was an upset that saved Lavin’s job – for a year, anyway.
Stay connected with LostLettermen.com via Facebook, Twitter, E-Mail & RSS Follow @lostlettermen 
.
9. 1986 St. John’s
The Redmen lost three starters (including Chris Mullin) and a key reserve from their ’85 Final Four squad, but they still had the Big East’s best starting five. Spearheading the team was Mark Jackson and Walter “The Truth” Berry, who was now the Big East darling after the departure of the previous year’s stars Patrick Ewing, Mullin and Ed Pinckney.
After winning the Big East Tournament, the Redmen had no reason to think they couldn’t claim the national title. But they didn’t even blow out their opening round opponent, Montana State, the only squad in the tournament with a sub-.500 record. The lack of momentum didn’t helping going into the second round against Auburn, who loved to run up and down the floor while also playing physical enough to warrant shoulder pads below the boards. The Redmen were embarrassed in a 16-point loss. Berry had just four points in the second half while Chuck Person – a.k.a. “The Rifleman” – did them in.
.
8. 2004 Kentucky
It’s no secret that Kentucky fans are little loony about the Wildcats. And by loony we mean completely ruthless. Not that Tubby Smith didn’t already know that. Despite wrapping up his second consecutive conference tournament title and fifth in seven years, he understood the importance of March in Lexington: “When you don’t get to the Final Four, that becomes another point of reference. Everybody looks for the negatives.” And the Cats hadn’t been there since (gasp!) 1998. But Smith had the Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed and the Wildcats had a chip on their shoulder after their exit in the ’03 Elite Eight.
But in the second round, a smaller, faster Alabama-Birmingham awaited the Wildcats, who came out flat to begin the game. The Blazers took advantage and ran circles around Kentucky. Even when the No. 1 seed came back and took the lead, Smith’s team didn’t have the horses to close the deal against a relentless UAB squad and their “40 Minutes of Hell” style. The loss may have been the beginning of the end for Smith at Kentucky. Three Final Four-less seasons later, Smith “left” for Minnesota.
.
7. 1996 Purdue
The ’96 Boilermakers weren’t just special in Purdue basketball history. They were special to Big Ten basketball history. Gene Keady’s squad was just the second school to ever win three consecutive unshared Big Ten titles. The only other team to do it was the 1960-62 Ohio State teams with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek.
But Purdue stumbled out of the gate against No. 16 seed Western Carolina. The Catamounts got four shots on the basket to either win or tie the game in the waning moments but couldn’t connect on any of them. The poor play carried over to the second round against eighth-seeded Georgia. The Boilermakers had a 24-20 lead about halfway through the first half, but then went scoreless for nine minutes and lost by seven. Ultimately the loss didn’t come as a big surprise to anyone who followed Purdue basketball. From 1983 to that ’96 tournament, the Boilermakers reached the Tournament 12 times and got past the second round just twice. Said Keady: “If you go back and check Purdue’s history in the tournament, we seem to have problems sustaining a lead.” Keady never made a Final Four.
.
6. 1992 Kansas
The Jayhawks were coming off an appearance in the national championship game in ’91 and were returning star point guard Adonis Jordan and adding another star in Rex Walters, who sat out ’91 after transferring from Northwestern. A Colorado writer was so confident the Jayhawks would return to the title game that he wrote, “Don’t even worry about the first 62 games of the NCAA Tournament. Nothing can stop the Blue Devils and Jayhawks from reaching the title game.”
Not so fast.
In the second round, UTEP coach Don Haskins – the same Don Haskins who defeated the all-white Kentucky team with Texas Western (now UTEP) in the 1966 Championship – installed a spread offense during the practice before the game. The Jayhawks were unprepared as the Miners waited until 15 seconds left on the shot clock until they attacked the basket. And they did, hitting 58 percent of their shots. The extended period of defense took a toll on the Jayhawks and the tired legs affected their offensive output on the other end. Jordan scored just two points. It was all enough to allow UTEP to pull off a 65-60 shocker.
.
5. 1998 Kansas
One year after just missing out on the Elite Eight, Roy Williams had a good feeling about his third-ranked Jayhawks going into the 1998 NCAA Tournament. “Last year’s team was a much more serious team. I’m not saying this team isn’t serious, but they like to have fun,” he said. Led by Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce, who wouldn’t have fun? They won the conference regular season and tournament titles and had just gotten a No. 1 seed in the Midwest. Oh, and they put a 110-52 hurting on Prairie View A&M in the first round.
But there wasn’t much fun in round two. Unlike in ’92, the loss wasn’t a result of the Jayhawks coming out flat. They were just plain beaten by Rhode Island’s two big guns: Cuttino Mobley and Tyson Wheeler. The pair combined for 47 points for the No. 8 seed. The loss also cemented Williams’ reputation that he couldn’t win the big one, a rep he battle against until 2005 when he won the first of two national titles with North Carolina.
.
4. 2004 Stanford
It’s now little wonder the 2004 Stanford team would eventually fall in the second round, despite having a scoring machine in Josh Childress. If you had talked to head coach Mike Montgomery at the time, you’d think had already conceded defeat. “As someone told me the other day, the better you do, the more you have to lose,” he said. That’s a real pick-me-up for a team that finished the year 29-1 with a regular season and conference tournament title. Oh, and about that. Montgomery admitted hat the Pac-10 “wasn’t as good this year as it has been.’ So why not just outright say your team is overrated?
After a sluggish first game, Alabama had a huge advantage in free throws (44 attempts to Stanford’s 11). The 33 makes helped provide the difference. In the second half, Alabama spread the floor and attacked inside, creating foul after foul after foul. The Cardinal didn’t respond with the same physicality and eventually the Crimson Tide bounced Stanford, 70-67.
.
3. 2010 Kansas
Are you sensing a pattern in Lawrence? Maybe there is something in the water supply or maybe winning the regular season and conference tournament titles is bad luck for the Jayhawks. Known as a team that played down to its competition, they came out flat against NIU after a poor effort vs. Lehigh.
This KU squad had it all. The senior leader (Sherron Collins), the big man (Cole Aldrich), the one-and-done freshman (Xavier Henry) and tons of depth. Everyone and their mom picked Kansas to win the national title. Instead, Kansas blew another golden opportunity and has critics questioning why Bill Self didn’t start pressing earlier in the game.
.
2. 1994 North Carolina
In 1994, North Carolina was returning all the key players from its ’93 national title team and was even welcoming two new names to the squad; freshmen Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace. Heard of them? With new talent infused with veteran players, the Tar Heels seemed like a lock for at least another trip to the Final Four. But right out of the gate the Tar Heels stumbled, trailing Liberty in the first round with 10 minutes to go.
Going into their second-round match up against Boston College, the Tar Heels didn’t seem prepared for the physicality of the game they were about to play. After the game, the Tar Heels were left dazed and confused and very upset with the lack of whistles against Boston College. Said Stackhouse: “We expected them to play physical, but there was also a lot of cheap shots.” The Heels cried themselves a river all the way back to Chapel Hill.
.
1. 1981 DePaul
DePaul is no stranger to choking. In 1980, DePaul lost its first game (in the second round, due to a bye) as a No. 1 seed against UCLA. In 1982, DePaul would lose its first game as a No. 1 seed to Boston College. But 1981 was the granddaddy of them all. Led by future NBA All-Stars Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings, the Blue Demons entered 26-1 and No. 1 in the notation. St. Joseph’s, the smallest school in Division I-A at the time, had just squeaked past Creighton in its first game.
With 12 seconds remaining, the Blue Demons held a one point lead, 48-47. St. Joseph’s was forced to foul DePaul’s best free throw shooter, Skip “Money” Dillard. He came up broke, missing the front end of a one-and-one to give the Hawks the opening they needed to come back down the court and benefit from a John Smith layup at the buzzer to win the game. Aguirre didn’t score double-digit points for the first time in his career. He eventually left the arena in uniform, threw off his jersey and walked back to the team’s hotel alone.
Ah yes – DePaul’s good old days.
Got a question or comment? E-mail us here
Liked this story? Click here for Lost Lettermen’s RSS feed and receive all our great content
Click here to start contributing to our wiki database of over 150,000 former college athletes and help us answer the question, “Where Are They Now?”
