Worst basketball losses you remember?

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Yup. They couldn’t even win one of those either.

Indiana in 1974 is understandable. King was still in high school and that Indiana team had 7 future NBA players on their roster. Losing to Bowling Green State with Grunfeld AND King a year later is a head scratcher. Bernard was co-SEC POY in 1975. That tournament was similar to the NCAAT Round of 32.

 

[vol94]

Wade’s career didn’t end with that one. Allan’s did. Wade came back for the 5-22 season without Allan.

Such a horrible team. I was @ UT early 90s and it was so painful watching the Vols play. They did beat KY at home 92-93 season. But there were more KY fans than TN. Wade was a horrible coach, imo.

 

[vol94]

That one was painful. So was Drunkle Jerry screwing the pooch versus UNC.

Slay got a costly technical Vs UNC. We were up big but gave it away.

 

[livefaith]

VMI - no loss close to being worse than that one for me. Bunch of 6’ 5” and under guys bombing 20 footers all game at the tune of 66%. And they only got 2 points for each of them. Yes Bernard didn’t play. But doesn’t matter.

Couldn't remember the SoCon team that did it, but if VMI had the 3pt.line they win by 20 probably. Horrible loss even tho Bernard was out w injury. Remember watching as a teen in horror.

 

[livefaith]

Slay got a costly technical Vs UNC. We were up big but gave it away.

Couldn't believe we lost that. Big lead and actual domination. But we went on an 8 or10 minute scoreless streak that doomed us in the 2nd ½. UNC rode that 2nd ½ all the way to the finals, only losing to MSU. They were like a 7 or 8nseed iirc, but turned it on just like last year. We were stacked! UNC had Julius Peppers as a backup, if you remember.

 

[vol94]

Couldn't believe we lost that. Big lead and actual domination. But we went on an 8 or10 minute scoreless streak that doomed us in the 2nd ½. UNC rode that 2nd ½ all the way to the finals, only losing to MSU. They were like a 7 or 8nseed iirc, but turned it on just like last year. We were stacked! UNC had Julius Peppers as a backup, if you remember.

Yeah, Peppers played football and had a nice NFL career.

 

[GregAmsler]

2007 NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen against #1 Ohio State. We had a twenty point lead and lost by one….

That game looked fixed with the foul calls being called on Tennessee to get OSU back in it.

 

[Volnuck]

Not by point marginal, but just “how did we lose to this team?” Inspired by this tweet:

The 2 losses in 2019 to Auburn. The regular season loss was tough because it was Bruce. The tournament loss was a double whammy with so much on the line (Tournament Championship and losing to Bruce).

 

[wtmvol]

2000 loss to UNC
2019 loss to Purdue

We’ve had other painful losses of course, but none of them are even close to these for me. Those are haunting memories.

 

[feathersax]

I didn't enjoy losing to Vandy after beating Memphis and getting the number 1 ranking. 2007-08 season.

That loss still grinds my groin.

 

[HippieVol33]

2000 loss to UNC
2019 loss to Purdue

We’ve had other painful losses of course, but none of them are even close to these for me. Those are haunting memories.

That 2000 loss to UNC sticks in my mind. I was young… but that loss is as haunting as any.

 

[Coddlecreek1]

We lost to something called Subpac in a early season tournament back in the 70s I believe. It was worse than No 1 Virginia losing to Chaminade.

Dude I remember that ! They were some kind of Maritime Service Academy . I was playing JV Basketball in 1973 . We had inter squad scrimmage, 2nd team beat 1st team…we became “subpac” coach gave me hell every time UT lost .

 

[Rickyvol77]

Worst one I can remember as terms of ugliness? When we lost to Georgetown under Cuonzo.

An embarrassing loss? When we were blown out of the water by like 30+ to Florida a few seasons ago.

A loss I wouldn't want to watch again? When we were up by 7 to Ole Miss and lost that game 52-50!

Ugliest was that K ONeill Penn St game in 94 or 95?

 

[VolPack22]

2007 NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen against #1 Ohio State. We had a twenty point lead and lost by one….

That’s number 1 in my book.

 

[wtmvol]

To take this masochism 1 step further, how about games we did end up winning, but neary lost and would have been awful?

2019 Iowa - leading by 25 in the 2nd half before surviving in OT. Grant Williams reaction afterwards…”I feel like a 5th grader on skittles”

2006 Winthrop - thank you Chris Lofton!

2010 Ohio St - by winning, it shut up the extremely obnoxious Ohio St fans and finally gave us our long-awaited Elite 8

2019 Colgate - as a 2 seed, we’ve had some real nail-biters. This game was much closer than the final score. Losing this would have been catastrophic humiliation, but we would have all been spared the traumatic Purdue finish that was coming our way 7 days later…

 

[Goladyvols9]

I don't remember the year but we were playing at Louisville, up 7 or 9 points with 30 seconds left and we had the ball. Louisville stole the ball 3 times and his 3 straight 3 point shots.

 

[livefaith]

Yeah, Peppers played football and had a nice NFL career.

What an athlete. NFL star and basketball for UNC.

 

[ReggieJohnsonFan]

Most embarrassing: 2011 NCAA first round loss to Michigan 75-45.

Most bitter pill to swallow loss: 1977 NCAA tourney loss to Syracuse and 2019 Sweet 16 loss to Purdue.

 

[The Dog]

Every loss u all named is painful. But, come on, Hopson makes the next FT and we have a 2 point lead with like 10 seconds to go. He misses, Draymond Green of all people, goes coast to coast and denies UT's its first Final 4. Mother effing heartbreaking. Not the worst loss, but the most painful, imo. Purdue, UNC and the Ill./Chicago losses hurt, but not like the MSU game, imo

 

[The Dog]

Michigan, last year hurt, I thought we were are on a roll

 

[dougvolfan]

A loss that makes me mad every time I think about. The game vs LSU where one ref called most of the fouls including a game ending one. He was later shown on a Facebook page to be a LSU superfan. That and that cheat will wade cost us a regular season sec championship.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Man... so many, I think some of the worst ones for me are recent tournament ones.

Purdue in OT (a game that shouldn't have gone to OT) in 2018-19
Upset by Loyola by 1 the year before in 2017-18

2013-14 losing to Michigan by 2 on that run by Martin was tough

2009-10 losing to Michigan State by 1 after just upsetting Ohio State, same year also losing to Kentucky by freaking 29 to end the SECT was a gut punch
2007-08 Arkansas putting us out of the SECT by 1 and then losing by 19 to Louisville in big tournament sucked (arguably Pearls' best team that was top 10 for all of the back half of the season) dropping that game @ Vanderbilt right after upsetting #1 Memphis on the road was also pretty damn annoying.

Buzz era most the time just didn't wanna lose by 20...

Green era
2000-01 losing his last game to Charlotte in the 1st round was disappointing as hell.
99-00 loss to South Carolina to open the SEC tournament (after we finished tied for Reg. Season Champion) odd season too, of the 4 12-4 SEC teams only LSU didn't lose their first game in the SECT that year.
98-99 we lost to Mississippi State in SECT again in first game after winning a share of Reg. Season championship. Then follow that up and lost to Missouri State by freaking 30 in NCAA

 

[LeannaVol]

UT/ MTSU NIT 1988
I was in the stands for this one which is why it stands out to me. UT sleep walked through most of the game and finally with a few minutes left Doug Roth woke up and started draining 3's but it was too late. Dyron Nix, who was awesome in my mind, was outplayed this game by the MTSU forward.

MTSU NIT win over Vols (3/18/88) - In a much anticipated matchup, Middle Tennessee hosted Tennessee in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. The Blue Raiders led most of the way and claimed the win, 85-80. Chris Rainey led five Blue Raiders in double figures with 20 points.

 

[jmva1]

Not that it even registers as it was a regular season game but I had great seats to see Dionte Christmas and temple destroy a top 10 ranked vols team in person in philadelphia

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Not that it even registers as it was a regular season game but I had great seats to see Dionte Christmas and temple destroy a top 10 ranked vols team in person in philadelphia

Tennessee vs. Temple Box Score, December 13, 2008 | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com