Worst basketball loss in program history

[Mole 4,333]

2 hours ago, Js1 said:

We'll get ACU/UNT-level talent because no one good/elite is going to want to risk it.  

Counterpoint: ACU/UNT-level talent makes the second round.

I agree with the general point though.

[Js1 85,519]

4 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Tony Bennett also banked some goodwill before that inexcusable loss by consistently making the tournament (with two second weekend appearances) and winning conference titles. If Shaka had done better in years 2-5 (particularly 4 and 5), maybe he could have skated by with the ACU disaster.

Tony Bennett has quite a few upsets under his belt. Lost as a 1 to 4 and 16. Lost as a 2 to 7. Lost as a 4 to 13. 

I didn’t realize it until this morning. 

[Mole 4,333]

If you coach good teams long enough, you’ll have some bad losses here and there. 15 seed Lehigh beat 2 seed Duke. It happens.

The problem is when the bad losses are the high point of your program.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

5 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Tony Bennett has quite a few upsets under his belt. Lost as a 1 to 4 and 16. Lost as a 2 to 7. Lost as a 4 to 13. 

I didn’t realize it until this morning. 

They focus on defense, and less than 5 turnovers a game.  That works well, but if can't put points on the board, and the other team gets hot, you're gonna lose some games you maybe shouldn't.  It's been the only real knock on his tenure. Not every kid wants to play defense first, scoring second.

[TxTower 652]

ACU is going to play a good team with a solid coach today.  Anything can happen in the tournament, but I got them losing by 15 today.

UCLA up by 19 at the start of the 2nd half


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[ATLLonghorn 857]

I will try to be succinct and not put too many numbers in here, but I'm bored all the time now so I did some research and I feel confident in saying the loss to Abilene Christian was the second worst loss in NCAA Tournament history only behind Virginia losing to UMBC and that's ONLY because that was a 1-16 game. UMBC played a hell of a lot better against Virginia than ACU did Texas.

Since the field expanded to 64 in 1985 there have been 32 upsets by 14, 15 and 16 seeds. Of the 32 winners ACU had

- The worst FG percentage (29.9)

- The second fewest field goals (20)

- Tied for the second fewest 3pt FG (3)

- Tied for third word 3pt FG percentage (16.7)

Of the three other teams as bad or worse from three, ACU had the lowest 2pt FG percentage by far. The only team with fewer made field goals was Stephen F Austin against WVU in 2016 and they hit seven threes and took 13 fewer shots.

Furthermore, if you look at ACU's analytics profile their strengths were turnover pct (1st in the nation), effective FG pct defense (17th in the nation) and were a modest offensive rebounding team (74th in the country) which is actually pretty impressive considering they're legit one of the smallest teams in the country.

Basically, ACU played exactly the way you'd expect them to play and any coaching staff worth a shit would've had their team ready to play and Shaka didn't. ACU played like shit in that game. Texas played slightly worse.

TL;DR - Abilene Christian sucks and Shaka Smart sucks worse.

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by ATLLonghorn