games vs ND.

Too painful.

country.

It would have been an upset from a prediction standpoint, but not from an actual "how good were we" standpoint. If we have played Kentucky ten times, we likely would have won five. We beat the actual champ two out of three. Not "in the conversation" but legitimately as good as anyone.

We haven't been at that level in football in a long time.

That ND team was, in fact, a legitimate national championship contender.

In a typical season from 1974-81, that could be said about ND MBB. 2015 is the 1 season since then in which it clearly could be said. It really can't be said about ND FB since 1993.

Winning that UK game would've been the greatest triumph in program history. It could've been a springboard to an even bigger win over Duke in the NC. We were THIS close to One Truly Shining Moment, which is why this one still hurts.

First everyone is correct, that was a special team and could have won the NC- but...

1. Had they beat UK, they would have had to play Wisconsin. That likely was the best Wisconsin team ever who BTW beat UK. IIRC after ND they were the most efficient offensive team and their team defensive stats were much better (as seen by the fact that Towns did not own the paint like he did versus ND).

2. Had ND won that game and faced Duke in the NC, you know damn well almost every call would have gone to Ratface.

My belief that we'd have won the title that year isn't born out of hard evidence. I just think once they'd beaten UK there would've been no earthly force that would've stopped that team. It was special. They showed it by ripping out the hearts of a really good Wichita team in the S16, and they showed it against UK. (I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.)

there were 5 teams IMO that were much better than any team we have seen this past season.

ND, Duke, WI, AZ, UK.

As far as the NCAAT:

ND and AZ were 0-1 versus them.

WI was 2-1

Duke was 1-0

As noted, 3 point shooting was the reason for the loss. Most cases, the team that shoots better wins. UK did overall and on treys.

That loss sticks with me more than any football loss (my freshman year was 2000). Such a likable that legitimately could have won it all.