Most PAINFUL Duke loss

[heyman25]

Thanks for the correction Chris. I was at the Cameron game only.

[chrishoke]

For me it was the 86 National Championship game and it's not even close. On top of everything that has been said about that team and game, my mom died the night before the final game against Carolina where we won our first ACC regular season championship under K. That team deserved to win. My family deserved to have them win. That one hurt.

[burnspbesq]

Two more that haven’t been mentioned.

(1) 2007 women’s sweet 16 vs. Rutgers. Lindsey at the line for two with one second left, down one. She shot 74.8 percent from the line that year. INCONCEIVABLE that she would miss both, but she did.

(2) 1992 women’s soccer final. Remains the only time Duke and Carolina have played for a national championship. Duke was Cinderella, an unseeded team pulling off three straight upsets to reach the final. The Cheats had Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly. It was every bit as ugly as you might imagine (9-1).

[OldPhiKap]

Any loss to UNC.

/thread

Yeah, the worst one was this year’s loss in Chapel Hill. I had to turn it off before the end because I couldn’t watch anymore.

[sagegrouse]

Then there's this one. My daughter and grand-daughter accompanied me to Indianapolis in 2015. Sage daughter ran into a HS friend at the exhibition hall whose job for the weekend was escorting Christian Laettner around. Thought nothing more about it. Sunday morning, daughter listened to her messages. We had been invited to the luxury suite with Christian and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the games Saturday night. We didn't get the invitation because her cell's battery had run down.

[weezie]

ALL of them.

You make a VERY good point.

[AustinDevil]

Two more that haven’t been mentioned.

(1) 2007 women’s sweet 16 vs. Rutgers. Lindsey at the line for two with one second left, down one. She shot 74.8 percent from the line that year. INCONCEIVABLE that she would miss both, but she did.

(2) 1992 women’s soccer final. Remains the only time Duke and Carolina have played for a national championship. Duke was Cinderella, an unseeded team pulling off three straight upsets to reach the final. The Cheats had Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly. It was every bit as ugly as you might imagine (9-1).

We actually scored first in that '92 final, then gave up nine unanswered.

[SoCalDukeFan]

1986 vs. Louisville was awful, awful, awful, awful.

1999 in St. Pete vs UConn was awful, awful, awful.

2004 in San Antonio vs. UConn was awful, awful.

I was present at the last two.

To me 2004 was probably the most painful. We deserved to win. Refs were awful, UConn fans a nightmare. While 1999 was certainly painful, we had no one to blame but ourselves. 1986 would have been a great win but somehow was less painful to me as the season exceeded expectations.

I too was at 1999 and 2004.

SoCal

[Wander]

2019 is especially painful because of Zion not taking a shot in the last minute. In fact, in the 2 games Duke lost while healthy that year, Zion took 0 shots in the last minute of either game, while RJ got 1 point on 7 shots. That is far more painful to me than bad reffing or something else out of our control. And I agree with those who say it will feel worse as Zion rises through the ranks of all-time NBA greats.

[Duke79UNLV77]

2019 is especially painful because of Zion not taking a shot in the last minute. In fact, in the 2 games Duke lost while healthy that year, Zion took 0 shots in the last minute of either game, while RJ got 1 point on 7 shots. That is far more painful to me than bad reffing or something else out of our control. And I agree with those who say it will feel worse as Zion rises through the ranks of all-time NBA greats.

And that 1 point was on a FT he tried to miss! I agree with putting the 2019 loss on the list for the same reasons, plus the fact that Zion was one of the most fun Duke players every to watch. He could have put on a show for the ages in the Final Four.

I would add the 2002 loss to Indiana. The team had NBA all-star Boozer, NBA 19 ppg scorer Dunleavy, long-time NBA players Dahntay Jones and Duhon, and but-for NBA great JWill as veterans, went out to a big lead, and then lost to a so-so Indiana team. It's also in my view as imbalanced reffed game against Duke as I remember. Thank you, Bruce Benedict. While just in the Sweet 16, that team could have won it all, especially after seeing a very poorly played national title game that year.

1999 and 1986 also are on my list for reasons others have mentioned.

For regular season games, the senior night Redick loss to Hansblabla was pretty bad.

[TKG]

Most painful Duke loss? The next one.

[fisheyes]

In no particular order:

1999 vs uConvicts. Living in CT made it even more painful.

2002 vs Indiana Boozer was fouled. HE WAS FOULED!

1978 vs Ohio State and St. Johns MSG Holiday Tourney. Ranked #1 and s*** the bed.

1979 vs Pitt at Cameron. Sam Clancy. OMG Stunning.

1990 vs UNLV I was in Hawaii on my honeymoon. Game on tape delay out there. Went to BBQ a nice steak and watch the game. Guy next to me told me Duke lost by 30. That steak sucked.

[Jedweb]

i think most of us who were Duke fans at the time would have to go with the 1986 title game loss to Louisville and Pervis (Never Nervous) Ellison who as a frosh had the game of his career (college or pro). The Duke team had four starters, all seniors and part of K's breakout recruiting class: Johnny D, Bilas, Alarie, and David Henderson, plus junior Tommy Amaker. We had watched those guys play together and improve together for years as a team, and vault ahead of The Schnozz and the Baby Blue Smurfs as The ACC program. There was a lot of ink about how they were all well behaved and articulate. Henderson was a script writer's dream - a poor kid from NC who got his shot at Duke when the more highly publicized player, Curtis Hunter, opted for the wrong shade of blue down the road. It was not Duke's first trip to the Final Four, but it was K's first. It has seemed to me, in retrospect, that the stars just aligned against Duke in 1986. Not as badly as in 1966 when Bob Verga was sick and Kentucky upset us in the finals, but still - it just wasn't meant to be. Our semi-final game was Kansas, but it should have been Michigan State - a good team, led by Scott Skiles, but not as talented as Kansas. Michigan State had Kansas all but beaten when, in the second half and Kansas trying to catch up, the clock operator in the Midwest Regional gave the trailing Jayhawks a break by not starting the clock for fifteen or twenty seconds well into the second half. And, within the last 25 seconds or so, leading, Michigan State missed the front end of two one-and-ones, and Kansas tied. Kansas won in overtime. They gave Duke a very tough game in the semi finals the following week, while Louisville had a (relative) cruise against LSU. Duke led Louisville in the first half, but to me looked like we were a little gassed by halftime. I recall (Memory - have not watched since) that right at the end of the first half Duke got a breakaway, and Johnny D either missed or was stuffed on a layup. That kind of thing just did not happen to Dawkins. Anyway, we lost, and it was the end of a fairy tale dream with five guys who were an excellent team and played, learned and grew together. The fact that Bilas and Alarie at 6 - 8 were the tallest starters led a lot of the national press to underestimate how good a team we had.

One or two folks have mentioned the 1988 Regional loss to Kentucky. 17 point lead gone in nine and a half minutes at the end of the game. That one was tough, but we ran into a lot of Kentucky fans at the restaurant after the game. They were complimentary and gracious. An anomaly? I don't know. What does stick in my mind is a young guy, probably college student, lying on the concrete outside of the arena in St. Petersburg, face up with a beer in one hand, and many more in his gut, screaming, "Now i know there's a God!" This was six years after The Laettner Shot.

[Bay Area Duke Fan]

i think most of us who were Duke fans at the time would have to go with the 1986 title game loss to Louisville and Pervis (Never Nervous) Ellison who as a frosh had the game of his career (college or pro). The Duke team had four starters, all seniors and part of K's breakout recruiting class: Johnny D, Bilas, Alarie, and David Henderson, plus junior Tommy Amaker. We had watched those guys play together and improve together for years as a team, and vault ahead of The Schnozz and the Baby Blue Smurfs as The ACC program. There was a lot of ink about how they were all well behaved and articulate. Henderson was a script writer's dream - a poor kid from NC who got his shot at Duke when the more highly publicized player, Curtis Hunter, opted for the wrong shade of blue down the road. It was not Duke's first trip to the Final Four, but it was K's first. It has seemed to me, in retrospect, that the stars just aligned against Duke in 1986. Not as badly as in 1966 when Bob Verga was sick and Kentucky upset us in the finals, but still - it just wasn't meant to be. Our semi-final game was Kansas, but it should have been Michigan State - a good team, led by Scott Skiles, but not as talented as Kansas. Michigan State had Kansas all but beaten when, in the second half and Kansas trying to catch up, the clock operator in the Midwest Regional gave the trailing Jayhawks a break by not starting the clock for fifteen or twenty seconds well into the second half. And, within the last 25 seconds or so, leading, Michigan State missed the front end of two one-and-ones, and Kansas tied. Kansas won in overtime. They gave Duke a very tough game in the semi finals the following week, while Louisville had a (relative) cruise against LSU. Duke led Louisville in the first half, but to me looked like we were a little gassed by halftime. I recall (Memory - have not watched since) that right at the end of the first half Duke got a breakaway, and Johnny D either missed or was stuffed on a layup. That kind of thing just did not happen to Dawkins. Anyway, we lost, and it was the end of a fairy tale dream with five guys who were an excellent team and played, learned and grew together. The fact that Bilas and Alarie at 6 - 8 were the tallest starters led a lot of the national press to underestimate how good a team we had.

One or two folks have mentioned the 1988 Regional loss to Kentucky. 17 point lead gone in nine and a half minutes at the end of the game. That one was tough, but we ran into a lot of Kentucky fans at the restaurant after the game. They were complimentary and gracious. An anomaly? I don't know. What does stick in my mind is a young guy, probably college student, lying on the concrete outside of the arena in St. Petersburg, face up with a beer in one hand, and many more in his gut, screaming, "Now i know there's a God!" This was six years after The Laettner Shot.

1966 Verga team lost to KY in the semi-final.

Regionals loss to KY was 1998.

[Jedweb]

Yes, of course. Should have proof read before submitting.

[Ggallagher]

I'm wondering how much our responses to this thread have to do with the eras the team played in - specifically the one and done era.

The loss in 1986 mattered the most to me since I had so much invested in watching that team grow and develop. And similarly the win that I feel most positive about is the 2010 championship. Having watched that team grow up at Duke during their careers made me enjoy their win more than any other. And when I think about our in 2015 I certainly enjoyed that, but I think the deepest joy I felt for that team was focused on Quinn - I was just very, very happy for him.

When I think about the final loss in 2019 that one really annoyed me. I mean for heaven's sake, we'd already beaten all the teams that ended up in the Final Four. But the luck factor seems to be a bigger part with a OAD team, plus there's just not the emotional involvement that I had for teams like in 1986 and 2015.

[jv001]

I'm adding the '67-'68 season 12-10 loss to NC State in the ACCT. Our record was 22-6 with losses to SC by 3 points and 6 points, to the Cheats by 3 points, and to Vandy by 1 point. That's four losses by 13 points. Mike Lewis had a fantastic year with 22 point per game and 14.4 rebounds per game. Instead of going to the NCAAT we went to the NIT where we won our first game but lost the next game to St. Peters by 29 points. What a way to end the season.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Yeah, the worst one was this year’s loss in Chapel Hill. I had to turn it off before the end because I couldn’t watch anymore.

Ummmm, what? (PS, if you can find it, you might want to go back and check that ending out.)

[sagegrouse]

Can "loss" be a collective noun?

Then I nominate as most painful the four games in Cameron against UNC between 2006 and 2009 when we lost to Tyler Hansbrough four straight times, including JJ's and Shel's Senior Night.

[OldPhiKap]

Ummmm, what? (PS, if you can find it, you might want to go back and check that ending out.)

Wait . . . we won? But it was so hopeless . . . .