the one thing about the Norm first round upsets is
Posted on: September 17, 2019 at 16:23:46 CT
McMuffin MU
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the teams in question were so damn good that even if you swapped in Quin's best postseason run for any of Norm's first round flubs, you usually are just replacing embarassment with severe sting
1990 for example, the Doug Smith/Anthony Peeler team ranked #1 in the nation for much of the year. Swap out the first round Northern Iowa disaster for a Quin run of making it all the way to the Elite Eight...what are you really left with? Sting, ache, pain because that team was so damn good all year you just knew it was capable of being a Final Four team and dammit they were so close uuugggh
Same thing in 1987
or 1983
hell it actually happened exactly that way in 1976 and 1994 for Norm in the Elite Eight
the other thing is a lot of the programs that at the time were pie in the face type losses for Norm are now programs that nobody wants to mess with. Xavier is Xavier, Northern Iowa knocked off ku with that Farukmanesh or whatever the hell his name was shot in 2010, Rhode Island has done lots of things, beat ku in 1998 and even had Lamar Odom the following year, etc.
At the time, all of them were "WHAT??? You lost to Xavier? Who the hell is Xavier???" type moments but they were developing good programs.