(06-13-2019 09:34 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(06-12-2019 10:25 PM)cubucks Wrote:  1983 NC State basketball was the first thing that came to mind. Not sure how comparable the two are?

I would say not very. NC State's "david" status is exaggerated retrospectively. In fact, they were ranked in the top 20 that year for about two months, before falling out shortly before the ACC tournament. Then when they won the ACC tournament, they came back in before the NCAA tournament.

When folks say that NC State needed to win the ACC title to make the tourney, that's true, but only because the tournament was a much more restrictive size of 52 teams. Today, they probably would have needed one win in the ACC tourney to get an at-large bid.

And in the NHL, IIRC, regular season records seem to have the least to do with who wins the Stanley Cup than any other sport, so this result isn't all that surprising either.

They lost about 2/3 of their games in the middle of the season when their best player was out with an injury.

Just watching Men In Black III. Claimed the '69 Mets were in last place mid-season before coming back to win the pennant and the World Series. I remember they were the Amazing Mets, but didn't remember them being in last, so quote MIB on that, not me.

1981 Houston Rockets made the playoffs the last day of the season at 80-82 as the last seed, #6. Beat the defending champion Lakers 2 out of 3. Beat #2 seed San Antonio 4 out of 7. Then ended up meeting the #5 seed Kansas City in West finals and beat them 4 out of 5.

But they fell to the Celtics in 6 games in the finals. Set a then NBA playoff record with 8 road wins in 12 games.

In college there's just more difference between the top and bottom. Hard for a team to move up that much.

Nobody had Utah #1, and for good reason.
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Indeed, there was a good reason that everyone voted for Florida in the coaches poll that year - they were required to do so because that was a BCS rule. Had they not done so, they would have been thrown out of the voting pool. To argue that this was not the case and that there were other reasons is mere sophistry. Try again. LOL

(06-12-2019 11:26 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Not the same level of success, but the 2006 Rice Owls had not been to a bowl in 40 years and started the season a typical 0-4. After a win vs Army and a loss to Tulane by 2TD, they sat at 1-5 midway through the season.

Rice caught fire and won each of its next six games to clinch its first bowl in two generations.

The winning streak started with an improbable win vs. UAB where the last minute comeback drive was halted by a UAB interception. Rather than take a knee to end the game, the defender tried to run and was stripped of the ball. Two plays later Rice won just its second game of the year and would win five more. Only the 40-29 win against UCF was by more than a TD.
Two 4th down conversions were needed on the final drive to beat ECU including a phenomenal leap by Jarrett Dillard to convert 4th and 18.
The final game of the year against SMU was a winner-take-all tilt for respectability as SMU was working on their own 20-something year bowl drought. Both teams tried to choke the thing away but Rice was the last one standing.

Like I said, not the same level of success, but probably the single most remarkable in-season turnaround I’ve ever witnessed in sports.

Rice winning the 2003 National Baseball Championship. That was something.

(06-13-2019 08:25 PM)bullet Wrote:  Just watching Men In Black III. Claimed the '69 Mets were in last place mid-season before coming back to win the pennant and the World Series. I remember they were the Amazing Mets, but didn't remember them being in last, so quote MIB on that, not me.

‘69 Mets finished 100-62 so the movie had to be bullshitting.

Twitter says the 1914 Boston Braves and 2019 St Louis Blues are the only 2 to go from dead last at midseason to world champs.

(06-13-2019 10:46 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(06-13-2019 09:45 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  2011 UConn basketball finished 9th in the Big East and then won the Big East Tournament and National Title.

Right, that's one of the two I thought of.

The other one was 2008 Fresno State baseball, 33-27 in the regular season, had to win their conference tournament to get into the NCAA tournament, got one of the lowest seeds in the tournament (seeded 4th in a 4-team regional), and won the national title.

yup, thought of us. 47-31. most losses for the champs ever. We lost the 1st gm in every round too.

(06-13-2019 09:00 PM)sierrajip Wrote:  

(06-12-2019 11:26 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Not the same level of success, but the 2006 Rice Owls had not been to a bowl in 40 years and started the season a typical 0-4. After a win vs Army and a loss to Tulane by 2TD, they sat at 1-5 midway through the season.

Rice caught fire and won each of its next six games to clinch its first bowl in two generations.

The winning streak started with an improbable win vs. UAB where the last minute comeback drive was halted by a UAB interception. Rather than take a knee to end the game, the defender tried to run and was stripped of the ball. Two plays later Rice won just its second game of the year and would win five more. Only the 40-29 win against UCF was by more than a TD.
Two 4th down conversions were needed on the final drive to beat ECU including a phenomenal leap by Jarrett Dillard to convert 4th and 18.
The final game of the year against SMU was a winner-take-all tilt for respectability as SMU was working on their own 20-something year bowl drought. Both teams tried to choke the thing away but Rice was the last one standing.

Like I said, not the same level of success, but probably the single most remarkable in-season turnaround I’ve ever witnessed in sports.

Rice winning the 2003 National Baseball Championship. That was something.

Yes, it WAS something and meant the world to a long-suffering fan base, as our first (and only) team natty. In the big picture, what Rice was able to do under Wayne Graham is the stuff of legend.

But more in line with this thread topic, our last of the 23(!) consecutive NCAA Postseason appearances was a true miraculous in-season turnaround.

In 2017, Rice sat well out of their usual at-large contention and tied for dead last at the midpoint of conference play (4-11), and in dire danger of missing the 8-team postseason. The team found their fire and came alive to end the regular season on a hot streak and then blast through the conference tourney to take the auto bid.

That team might have even beat out Fresno for the most improbable title, but just couldn’t quite make it past some weird bounces and the weather delays to get through a regional hosted by eventual national runner-up LSU.

The 1999 Cincinnati Reds were almost in this boat. 6 weeks into the season they were in 6th place, dead last. Then they went on a 16-4 tear.

They entered September in 2nd place. I remember that September vividly. They went 19-6 to vault into first.

Then they flubbed it. Lost 3 of the last 4 and tied with the Mets for the Wild Card. They lost a 1 game playoff to determine who would get the Wild Card.

That lineup was awesome. Infield was Sean Casey, Pokey Reese, Barry Larkin, and Aaron Boone. Eddie Taubensee caught and hit .311 with 21 HR. Greg Vaughn hit 45 HR. The starting pitching was middling, but the relievers were solid and the lineup was good enough to get 96 wins.

After that year, the Reds traded for Griffey Jr in the offseason and that put them out of contention for the next decade.

Back in my sportswriting days, one of the high schools in my coverage area was something like 1-39 in football its first four seasons, and they started their fifth season 0-4, so it looked like another miserable year in the books.

Then they beat a district opponent for their second win, and somehow built on that with two road wins against decent competition and two wins against county rivals (who weren't that great, but still, rivals). So despite winning just one of its first 44 games ever, they managed to win five of their final six to end the season 5-5 — and thanks to a few breaks from other teams, somehow managed to get the fourth and final playoff spot in the region for their classification. They played the unbeaten No. 1 seed in the region and ... got just splattered. Nevertheless, that's the most unlikely reversal of fortune I've witnessed at any level of sport, even if they didn't win a title for their troubles.

(06-13-2019 10:57 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(06-13-2019 08:25 PM)bullet Wrote:  Just watching Men In Black III. Claimed the '69 Mets were in last place mid-season before coming back to win the pennant and the World Series. I remember they were the Amazing Mets, but didn't remember them being in last, so quote MIB on that, not me.

‘69 Mets finished 100-62 so the movie had to be bullshitting.

The Mets had never finished higher than 9th out of 10 in their previous seasons in the National League, but in the "Miracle" season they hit 500 in early May, their best position EVER, before a 5 game losing streak dropped them to 5th place (out of 6 in the division) by May 27th ... it was at that point that the "Miracle" season really got going, with a club record 11 straight wins.

They weren't in LAST place at the All Star break, but they were "in the cellar" "in mid season". So the movie is exaggerating.

Quote: Twitter says the 1914 Boston Braves and 2019 St Louis Blues are the only 2 to go from dead last at midseason to world champs.

The Miracle Mets are certainly not a contradiction to that ... the Miracle was rather that a club that had never before had a mid-season record at or above 500 and never previously finished above 9th out of 10 went on to win it all.

(06-19-2019 05:30 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(06-13-2019 10:57 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(06-13-2019 08:25 PM)bullet Wrote:  Just watching Men In Black III. Claimed the '69 Mets were in last place mid-season before coming back to win the pennant and the World Series. I remember they were the Amazing Mets, but didn't remember them being in last, so quote MIB on that, not me.

‘69 Mets finished 100-62 so the movie had to be bullshitting.

The Mets had never finished higher than 9th out of 10 in their previous seasons in the National League, but in the "Miracle" season they hit 500 in early May, their best position EVER, before a 5 game losing streak dropped them to 5th place (out of 6 in the division) by May 27th ... it was at that point that the "Miracle" season really got going, with a club record 11 straight wins.

They weren't in LAST place at the All Star break, but they were "in the cellar" "in mid season". So the movie is exaggerating.

Quote: Twitter says the 1914 Boston Braves and 2019 St Louis Blues are the only 2 to go from dead last at midseason to world champs.

The Miracle Mets are certainly not a contradiction to that ... the Miracle was rather that a club that had never before had a mid-season record at or above 500 and never previously finished above 9th out of 10 went on to win it all.

The Mets were never in last place in 1969. They were never lower than 5th out of 6, and that was early in the season. However, they were 18-23 in 4th place, 9 games out on May 27. They then started to turn their season around, not unlike the Blues, going on an 11 game winning streak and moving to 29-23 in 2nd place, but still 7 games out, on June 10.

They continued to play well, but so did the Cubs. On August 13, after a three game losing streak, they dropped 62-51, now in 3rd place, but 10 games out. The Mets then proceeded to go on another tear, winning 14 of 16, closing to 4 1/2 games out by August 31.

Starting on September 6, the Mets went on a final tear, winning 14 of 15. The Cubs, meanwhile, collapsed, losing 11 out of 12. In a two week period, the Mets went from 4 1/2 games behind to 5 games ahead. The rest, as they say, is history.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams...ores.shtml
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams...ores.shtml

(06-19-2019 07:59 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(06-19-2019 05:30 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  ... The Mets had never finished higher than 9th out of 10 in their previous seasons in the National League, but in the "Miracle" season they hit 500 in early May, their best position EVER, before a 5 game losing streak dropped them to 5th place (out of 6 in the division) by May 27th ... it was at that point that the "Miracle" season really got going, with a club record 11 straight wins. ...

The Mets were never in last place in 1969. They were never lower than 5th out of 6, and that was early in the season. However, they were 18-23 in 4th place, 9 games out on May 27. They then started to turn their season around, not unlike the Blues, going on an 11 game winning streak and moving to 29-23 in 2nd place, but still 7 games out, on June 10.

Gosh, sounds like there is an echo in here.