The 2015 college basketball season just ended. The 2014 college football season is a more distant memory, but football owns more of a hold on the American sports fan’s imagination. Before every waking thought turns to the 2015 football season, why not explore the similarities of various football and basketball seasons from the current college sports cycle, which continues with the lacrosse championships in late May and concludes with the softball and baseball College World Series in June?
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1) ALABAMA FOOTBALL and KENTUCKY BASKETBALL
Yes, 2015 Kentucky was much, MUCH more a juggernaut in hoops than 2014 Alabama was in football — that difference should be acknowledged up front. However, both teams were able to benefit from the SEC being far less daunting than it had been, say, three years earlier. Both teams made the Final Four (lowercase in football, of course). Both teams gained leads in their respective semifinals that most pundits thought would hold up. Both teams were knocked out by Big Ten opponents in domed stadiums. Yes, the comparison holds up.
2) SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL and FLORIDA BASKETBALL
The Gamecocks kept carrying leads into the second half but could not finish. The Gators… kept carrying leads into the second half but could not finish.
It makes you wonder if Steve Spurrier and Billy Donovan, who know each other given their shared histories at Florida, ever commiserated during either man’s gut-punch-filled season.
3) GEORGIA SOUTHERN FOOTBALL and DAVIDSON BASKETBALL
The football Eagles and the basketball Wildcats won outright conference championships in their first seasons as league members — Georgia Southern in the Sun Belt, Davidson in the Atlantic 10.
4) FLORIDA STATE FOOTBALL and VIRGINIA BASKETBALL
The Seminoles and Cavaliers both won ugly a lot of times, but did manage to power their way to repeat ACC championships during the regular season. They were both underseeded in the postseason and received rough draws. Teams wearing green — Oregon football and Michigan State basketball — outplayed them and knocked them out.
5) GEORGIA FOOTBALL and NORTH CAROLINA STATE BASKETBALL
When “on,” these teams both looked like world-beaters, and they both scored significant victories on the road. Georgia destroyed Missouri in Columbia, while North Carolina State waxed North Carolina in Chapel Hill and took down Louisville in the KFC Yum! Center.
Yet, as great as these teams could be when at their best, they lost multiple games to teams they had no business losing to. Georgia fell to one of Steve Spurrier’s worst South Carolina teams, and to one of the worst Florida teams this century (exceeded in ineptitude only by the 2013 Gators). The Wolfpack lost to Wake Forest and Boston College on the hardwood.
6) BAYLOR FOOTBALL and BAYLOR BASKETBALL
Both bunches of Bears achieved richly during the season and impressed just about every pundit in each sport, only to suffer the most unfathomable gut-punch losses in the postseason after dominating the first 90 percent of their respective games — football against Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl, basketball against Georgia State in the NCAA tournament.
Speaking of Michigan State….
7) MICHIGAN STATE FOOTBALL and GONZAGA BASKETBALL
Neither the Spartans nor the Zags registered a particularly impressive win during the course of their respective regular seasons. However, they both stayed the course and finished in the top eight. They also both lost to the eventual national champions (MSU to Ohio State, Gonzaga to Duke).
8) OHIO STATE FOOTBALL and DUKE BASKETBALL
Two coaching giants — Urban Meyer and Mike Krzyzewski — got their players to play tremendous defense in the stretch runs of their seasons, needing help from a lot of underclassmen. That’s why Urban and Coach K are who (and what) they are.
9) NEBRASKA FOOTBALL and TEXAS BASKETBALL
The Huskers won nine games. The Longhorns made the NCAA tournament. Yet, these two programs are not supposed to settle for those kinds of seasons. Rightly, both athletic directors booted the programs’ head coaches (Bo Pelini and Rick Barnes) when it was all said and done.
10) UCLA FOOTBALL and INDIANA BASKETBALL
For a long time, these programs just haven’t been where they expect to be. Terry Donahue and Bob Knight recede even further into the past in places — Westwood and Bloomington — where greatness was once a reality.
UCLA’s late-season collapse occurred in the space of one game, against Stanford. Indiana’s late-season collapse occurred over the course of several games. Yet, in the end, both the Bruins and Hoosiers shared one specific trait: Their (solid) performances in their final games — UCLA’s win in the Alamo Bowl over Kansas State and Indiana’s narrow loss to Wichita State in the NCAA tournament — both left their fan bases shaking their heads and saying, “Where the heck was THIS a month ago?!?!”
