Yes, triple crown years are about as good as it gets. I rate any of those seasons equal to those with Final 4's and just behind 91,92,91,01,10,15 and ??.
Printable View
That was very special. It had been so long since that happened. 65-66 season I believe.
Good thread.. One other comparison.. 2000 season. Would you take UNC season over ours because they made a Final Four (somehow) despite that we beat them both times head to head & won regular season & tourney. Personally I take ours. Probably helped that I knew there was no way in heck that UNC team would go all the way.
It is very tempting to look at Duke's success and what we want in a season and wrap in UNC's results.
If we did that than 2010 is top of the list...NCAA Championship for Duke and NIT for UNC
2002 is also high on the list only because UNC went 8-20 and nothing Duke did...
So, I tend to just look at Duke's results. The exception is the head to head match-ups (mentioned above) since a Duke win is a UNC loss.
Its not really addressing the question, it is a rare win that is better than the next win.
Expectations and a good feeling about the future count as well. In '84 we were coming off two straight losing seasons, played UNC with Jordan close twice, beat them a third time in the ACC Tournament and UNC tanked in the NCAAs against Indiana. No NCAA wins that year, but there was a feeling the team had a bright future, which of course it did.
No concerns about the stars bolting for the NBA.
That was a great season.
Another great thing about the '88 season was not only sweeping three games from UNC, but sweeping three games with our young coach against Dean Smith. Although K had beaten Dean a few times, and made the National Championship game in '86 obviously, the 1988 season established that there was a new force on the north end of 15-501 and not just a flash in the pan.
Yup. Valvano's NC, K's emergence, and Bobby Cremins' recruiting streak really put Dean on his heels (so to speak) in the wake of Jordan's group moving on after '82. Duke landing Dawkins, et. al. for the 1983 season and Danny Ferry for the '85 season probably added fuel to the fire.
But since we know the whole cheating scheme was really about women's basketball, I'm sure our conjecture is without basis . . . .
(and Sage is right -- G'Town won in '84)
I really enjoy the regular season and watching the team progress. I enjoy watching the preseason tournaments and big matchups early on where the coaching staff often has the team further ahead than some other teams and we see some great battles. That Tyler Thornton corner three against Kansas to win that stacked tournament sure was fun. I also enjoy getting the chance to see some of the end of the bench players get a chance to show their stuff in some of the other early season games as the team struggles around exam and Christmas time. Then, there is always the question of how long will it take the new team to learn to win on the road and/or big games in ACC play. I like that every week has two games that will greatly affect our perception of the team and the ACC standings. It's fun to also think about how Duke and the rest of the conference stacks up compared to the rest of the country and how might that affect NCAAT seeding. I always like the end of ACC play and the two big games with the used to be university NC. I like the ACCT (not sure about Tuesday) where every game is big and hope to get to see a smorgasbord of basketball some year soon.
At this point of the year, everything happens so fast as the team is always two and then one loss(es) away from never playing again. It's so final, which makes it so dramatic and exciting. NCAA championships trump all, Regional Championships are next and then ACCT Championships, but after that, a few regular season wins can certainly trump an extra NCAAT round for me.
I don't know how to objectively value regular season vs. postseason. I am very excited for the regular season to start as we wonder if this team will learn how to win the big games and is there anything remotely approaching 82-50.
In the end, championships are the most important thing, but by championships I mean national championships. Winning the ACC tournament is great, but doesn't mean much with out a national title to follow it. I really disagree with Coach K in that I think putting up a regular season championship banner is embarrassing. I also think final four banners are embarrassing if you didn't win the championship. I don't want to celebrate 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place. There's a great old interview with Derek Jeter where they ask if he would rather miss the playoffs, lose early in the playoffs, or lose in the World Series. His response was that it doesn't matter - you lost.
That all being said, nothing is more important to me now than a win against North Carolina in Cameron. I may take that over a national title if I had to choose between the two. Luckily, they're not mutually exclusive.
500 - National Championship
50 - Final Four
20 - NCAA tournament berth
9 - Sweet 16
9 - ACC tournament champ
9 - ACC regular season champ
5 - UNC game
2 - Home regular season game (non-UNC)
1 - Regular season game (non-UNC)