Losing Grip

With the underwhelming performance of the North Carolina men’s basketball team — the defending national champions — riding its second three-game losing streak of the season after a 92-71 blowout by Maryland (making them one loss shy of being tied with N.C. State and Miami for the worst conference record in the ACC), I pose a trivia question: Who was the last college team to win the NCAA Division I men’s basketball national championship and fail to reach the tournament the following year?

(AP Photo/Nick Wass) Maryland's Jordan Williams (20) and Greivis Vasquez, back, try to get the ball from North Carolina's Deon Thompson (21) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday in College Park, Md.

You don’t have to go as far back as you might think. In 2008, the year the University of Kansas won the national championship, the previous year’s champ Florida – coming off of back-to-back titles — failed to reach the NCAA tournament. The 2008 Florida Gators made the postseason NIT and lost in the semifinals to NIT runner-up Massachusetts.

Though history escapes me, I’m pretty sure that 2007-2008 Florida team had pretty much no expectations with five  players from the championship team being drafted in the 2007 NBA draft — including three lottery picks: Al Horford (drafted No. 3 by Atlanta), Corey Brewer (No. 7 by Minnesota) and Joakim Noah (No. 9 by Chicago). Pretty sure they were at least not ranked in the preseason top-10 — as North Carolina was ranked No. 6 in the Associated Press preseason poll and No. 4, with one No. 1 vote, in the USA Today/ESPN preseason poll this year.

But for KU fans who wavered through the Roy Williams years, this is something they have seen before — though not quite as drastic of a fall as first to worst. Williams, through all his great years at KU, was still hit and miss with his recruiting classes (for every Drew Gooden, Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich class, there was a Moulaye Niang or for every Paul Pierce there was an Eric Chenowith).

It’s looking like the only way UNC may make a return trip to the Big Dance will be by winning the ACC tournament. Which, with a Duke team I’m not sold on being the front-runner, is still possible if the Tar Heels can figure things out in the last month.

Subscribe to the comments for this post