{"id":8011,"date":"2016-04-06T08:05:06","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T15:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/a-historic-regular-season-without-a-title-often-rings-hollow\/"},"modified":"2016-04-06T08:05:06","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T15:05:06","slug":"a-historic-regular-season-without-a-title-often-rings-hollow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/a-historic-regular-season-without-a-title-often-rings-hollow\/","title":{"rendered":"A historic regular season without a title often rings hollow"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI<\/strong> \u2014 Golden State, take note. Putting together a historic regular-season is only half the battle for teams trying to etch out a spot in the annals of sports immortality.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t guarantee a title.<\/p>\n

If the Warriors break the Chicago Bulls\u2019 single-season win record of 72 set back in the 1995-96 season, they\u2019ll be celebrated as the greatest team in NBA history \u2014 of the regular-season variety, that is. To go down as truly the best ever, as unfair as this may seem, they would still have to win a championship.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some teams that had regular seasons for all-time, yet fell short of ending their seasons with their sport\u2019s biggest prize.<\/p>\n

\n

NHL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Detroit Red Wings, <\/strong><\/p>\n

1995-96<\/strong><\/p>\n

With a league all-time record 62 wins in the 1995-96 regular season, the Detroit Red Wings were miles above the rest of the NHL. They finished the regular season with 131 points, 27 more than the second-best team in the league that year.<\/p>\n

That team would be the Colorado Avalanche, and they weren\u2019t second-best in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Wings\u2019 season started with a loss in Denver, and that\u2019s how it ended as well. Detroit didn\u2019t even get to the Stanley Cup final, losing in six games to Colorado in the Western Conference final. The Avalanche would go on to roll past Florida for the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

Detroit won 22 out of 24 games in one regular-season stretch, didn\u2019t lose a single game at home in November, December, January and February \u2014 and still fell short of the ultimate prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said it, and we meant it,\u201d Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman said. \u201cWinning 62 games in the regular season meant nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

MLB<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seattle Mariners, 2001<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seattle matched the all-time Major League record for wins, 116 \u2014 done only once before or since, by the 1906 Chicago Cubs.<\/p>\n

The Cubs didn\u2019t win the World Series in their 116-win year, losing to the Chicago White Sox in six games.<\/p>\n

The Mariners didn\u2019t even get to the Fall Classic, losing to the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series. Getting 242 hits in a season from Ichiro Suzuki, 206 more from Bret Boone and having four 15-game winners in the rotation wasn\u2019t enough to have the season end with champagne baths.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tougher task as you move down the process,\u201d Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. \u201cYou know, the amazing thing about baseball is that no matter how many games you win, unless you win a World Series, you\u2019re going to feel disappointment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

NFL<\/strong><\/p>\n

New England Patriots, 2007<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been only one perfect season in NFL history, the Miami Dolphins going 17-0 in 1972.<\/p>\n

New England was actually better, until the end.<\/p>\n

The Patriots took an 18-0 record \u2014 an NFL first \u2014 into the Super Bowl at the end of that season, going up against the New York Giants. But the Giants got a touchdown catch from David Tyree early in the fourth quarter, then a circus catch from Tyree late in the game to set up Plaxico Burress\u2019 13-yard go-ahead scoring grab of a pass by Eli Manning and won the game 17-14.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely disappointing,\u201d Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said. \u201cIt isn\u2019t something any of us prepared for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

College basketball<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kentucky Wildcats, <\/strong><\/p>\n

2014-15<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Wildcats were 38-0 heading into the 2015 men\u2019s basketball national semifinals against Wisconsin, a mere two wins away from being the first 40-0 team in college basketball history and on the brink of being the sport\u2019s first undefeated champion since Indiana in 1976.<\/p>\n

And they didn\u2019t get to the final.<\/p>\n

Frank Kaminsky scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and Wisconsin pulled away late to beat Kentucky 71-64 in the semis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest,\u201d Kentucky coach John Calipari said that night. \u201cFor me, I wasn\u2019t thinking 40-0. I was just trying to win the game, get on to another game. I would hope my team was that way, but they\u2019re 18- and 19-year-olds. Maybe they were. You know what? If they were, OK. I\u2019ll deal with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Women\u2019s basketball<\/strong><\/p>\n

Notre Dame, 2013-14<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Irish were trying to become the fourth team in women\u2019s Division I history to finish a season 38-0 or better, which would have had them joining Connecticut, Baylor and Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Problem was, UConn was standing in Notre Dame\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame stayed close for a while, trailing by only seven at halftime but eventually fell 79-58 for what became Connecticut\u2019s ninth national title. The Huskies finished 40-0 that season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were playing the Miami Heat. … LeBron was the only thing they were missing,\u201d Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said of UConn afterward.<\/p>\n

\n

College football<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clemson Tigers, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clemson was gunning to be the first 15-0 major college football team since the NCAA was formed, and the first in nearly 120 years when it faced Alabama in this past season\u2019s College Football Playoff championship game.<\/p>\n

And it was on the Tigers\u2019 minds, too. Some players said they even started talking about it at the season\u2019s first practice back in August.<\/p>\n

History was not to be made, however. Alabama prevailed 45-40.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t let one game define you,\u201d Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. \u201cRight now, all of our hearts are broken.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 Golden State, take note. Putting together a historic regular-season is only half the battle for teams trying to etch out a spot in the annals of sports<\/a> immortality. It doesn\u2019t guarantee a title. If the Warriors break the Chicago Bulls\u2019 single-season win record of 72 set back in the 1995-96 season, they\u2019ll be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-8011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8011"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}