With national championships in Men's basketball and lacrosse, and deep runs in the NCAA tournament in several other sports (plus a respectable season in football) does the 2009-10 year go down as the best in Duke sports history?
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With national championships in Men's basketball and lacrosse, and deep runs in the NCAA tournament in several other sports (plus a respectable season in football) does the 2009-10 year go down as the best in Duke sports history?
I dunno, but it may be and clearly is in terms of NC's. Here are some other contenders --Quote:
Originally Posted by mike88
1985-86 - Final Four in basketball and NC in soccer, IIRC
1965-66 - Final Four in hoops plus ACC champs in football, also IIRC
1962-63 - Ditto
1941-42- Undefeated regular season and Rose Bowl in football (played in Durham after Pearl Harbor). Southern Conference champs in basketball with 22-2 record.
Seems like there was one year recently where Duke had an improbable run of ACC championships. Anyone?
sagegrouse
Just wait till the Blue Devils upset the Crimson Tide on a Snyderwine field goal from 50 with no time left to shock the sports world...and make a bowl at 8-4 later that year.
You'll have to forgive the bold proclamations, too many national championships can make one inebriated and not of the right mind.
Seriously, I'm really happy for LAX, its time for the FB team to get theirs.
I request permission from the Forum to amend and extend my remarks.Quote:
Originally Posted by sagegrouse
The 1985-86 reference is incorrect. The 1986 NCAA soccer championship and the 1985-86 NCAA Final Four were in the same calendar year but different school years.
Also should have mentioned:
1989-1990 - Final Four in hoops (the Grouse was there in McNichols Arena in Denver) and -- TA-DA -- ACC champs in football.
sagegrouse
I agree this season has truly been great. If you go by ALL sports and don't overweight basketball/football, since 1993 the most successful year was 2004-05 according to the Director's Cup standings where we finished in fifth. In 2004-05, these were our results:
National Championship in women's golf
National Runner Up in women's cross country (which we should have won; won EVERY single meet before the NCAAs with our top 2 runners placing 1-2 every time)
National Runner Up in women's field hockey
National Runner Up in men's lacrosse
3rd in men's soccer
3rd place in women's lacrosse
5th in women's basketball
8th place in men's golf
9th in men's basketball (which was technically a Sweet Sixteen appearance)
9th in women's soccer
9th place in men's tennis
13th in women's fencing
16th place in women's track and field (W)
17th place in women's tennis
18th place in women's track and field (S)
That is one damn consistent year across sports! Only one national championship, but six total top three finishes. Top 20 in the nation in most scholarship sports that Duke fields.
Agreed that '04-'05 will be hard to top.
This year was still terrific:
> Football - Best record since 1994
> Women's XCountry - 8th at NCAAs
> Fencing - Three individuals finished in top 12 at NCAAs
> Swimming & Diving - Individual national champion Nick McCrory in diving; Abby Johnston dove to a 4th-place finish
> Men's basketball - NCAA Champs
> Women's basketball - ACC Champs, Elite Eight
> Wrestling - Konrad Dudziak places 4th at NCAAs
> Men's tennis - Individual loses in NCAA Final Four; team loses in Sweet 16
> Women's tennis - Team loses in Sweet 16
> Women's golf - 8th at NCAAs
> Men's golf - play starts today, I believe
> Men's lax - NCAA Champs
> Women's lax - Another tough loss to Northwestern in the...quarterfinals?
And a number of individual All-Americans and plenty of other team accomplishments that I've unfortunately left out.
How does that old cliché go, “from your lips to God’s ears”?Quote:
Originally Posted by RelativeWays
Titles in 2 sports...one being basketball and the other the phoenix-like lacrosse program...yes, best Duke sports year ever!
If you are talking about the entire athletic program at Duke I think 04'-05' is a no-brainer. Although NCs are pretty tough to beat :D.Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Dat
I'll respect those who disagree, but there's no way you'll ever convince me that a Duke national title in women's golf - an awesome, great accomplishment - is equivalent to a Duke national title in men's basketball. It all depends on how you personally weight things, obviously, but for me the fact that men's basketball, women's basketball, football, and lacrosse were all more successful this season - including, of course, the two national championships - makes this year better than 2005 for Duke sports.
WARNING-this is a thought experiment I had on combining scoring systems and calculating out director's cup points for the future. This is an attempt to quantify things that probably can't be quantified and many feel that it definitely can't be quantified. If you're one of those people or would be bored by a bunch of silly math, STOP NOW! You have been given fair warning. I don't want to see posts about how this is stupid and you have to go by you're gut. This is only for fun (yes, I find thought experiments with directors cup points to be fun).Quote:
Originally Posted by Wander
Just as a fun little experiment, I say you combine the Director's cup and Carlyle cup systems. That is, use the scoring system from the Director's cup, but double the points for Football and Basketball (men's and women's). After all, I agree that I would rather have a MBB championship than a Women's golf title (though I still love women's golf and followed the live scoring closely this year). You can argue about whether a MLAX title is better than a WBB, but I'm combining things that already exist. On to the experiment.
Duke finished with 1021.25 director's cup points in 2005. By doubling the points for the above sports, you add an extra 73 for WBB and 64 for MBB, giving a total of 1158.25. This year, Duke currently has 569.5 points through the winter sports. The first round of spring sports will be officially updated on Thursday, but by my calculations, we should add 100 for MLAX, 60 for WLAX, 64 for M tennins, 73 for W tennis, and 69.75 for Wgolf (I'm not 100% on this one, but I assumed 64 team non bracket scoring with splitting the 8th ad 9th place points for a T-8, since they seem to have given points for teams failing to advance past regionals in the past) This brings the total to 936.25. By doubling the appropriate sports, we add 100 for MBB and 73 for WBB bringing the total to 1109.25. Since Duke does not have a softball team and the Baseball and Rowing teams did not qualify for the NCAA's, there are three sports left in which Duke can gain points, Men's golf, and Men's and Women's track and field. Because the men's golf team advanced past the regional round, and are currently getting underway in round one of the NCAA championship, they are guaranteed at least 30th place, which should give them 44 points (I again assume that they are giving points to those who didn't make it past regionals as in the past and will use the 64-team structure). Adding this brings the total to 1153.25, 5 points short of 2005. If just one person in T&F places in the top 8 in his or her event, this will guarantee 5 more points for this year. A 25th place finish for the golf team will also get an extra 5 points and tie. Any more than that and 2010 will pass 2005 as the best year ever. At the end of the day, the doubling method added 36 points to 2010 since WBB and Football had the same finish. In the pure Directors cup system, 2010 will need an extra 41 points beyond what is guaranteed to tie 2005. Examples of how this can happen are a 3rd place finish for golf, or 5th place finish for golf and 1 man and 1 women earning the minimum points for track. It is possible for golf to have a middle of the road finish (more likely) and for a couple of people to score points in track to get above the minimum, but given the relative strengths of the teams, it's not likely that 2010 will pass 2005 in a pure director's cup system.
I don't think it's the NC that makes one inebriated...;)Quote:
Originally Posted by RelativeWays