What's been the most frustrating season in your lifetime?

[DienerTime34]

I'm going to go with '04-'05. We'd dealt with the crushing feeling of going from a Final Four to the NIT the year before, but things looked better initially in 04-05. Diener was a senior, Novak was coming into his own as a junior, everyone expected Dameon Mason to take a giant leap forward ... By the end of the year Rob Hanley was our starting point guard, Marcus Jackson was bringing the ball up the floor, Mason showed little to nothing. The team couldn't even inbound the ball against TCU in the Conference USA tournament (read that sentence again and weep). It all ended with an opening NIT loss to Western Michigan and at a half-empty Bradley Center.

Never again.

[tower912]

03-04, 04-05 are up there.   For me it was 85-86.   MU is on the cusp of being ranked, UNC comes to town, MU loses a heartbreaker, the season ends up with another NIT bid, Majerus leaves, Dukiet arrives, nausea ensues.  

[GooooMarquette]

08-09.

We had a potential Final Four team with the three amigos lus Lazar until Dominic broke his foot.  He made a gallant effort to come back against Mizzou in the second round - I still remember the buzz around Boise when it was announced that he'd play - but he clearly wasn't himself.  

Runner up:  77-78, with the loss on the awful call against Whitehead against Miami.

[LloydMooresLegs]

03-04, 04-05 are up there.   For me it was 85-86.   MU is on the cusp of being ranked, UNC comes to down, MU loses a heartbreaker, the season ends up with another NIT bid, Majerus leaves, Dukiet arrives, nausea ensues.  

+1, and it being my senior year didn't help.  Horrible losses to ND and UNC.

[Coleman]

04-05, but last night notwithstanding this season is making a run for it.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

08-09.

We had a potential Final Four team with the three amigos lus Lazar until Dominic broke his foot.  He made a gallant effort to come back against Mizzou in the second round - I still remember the buzz around Boise when it was announced that he'd play - but he clearly wasn't himself.  

Runner up:  77-78, with the loss on the awful call against Whitehead against Miami.

agree on 08-09.  that was such a good team, but heartbreak city vs UCONN.

[MUfan12]

Yep. That team was special. They might have won the BE that year if Dominic hadn't gotten hurt. Lost close ones to UConn, UL, and Cuse down the stretch. Mo did what he could, but Dominic would have been the difference.

[JakeBarnes]

Probably Season 3 of Lost.

[barfolomew]

08-09.

We had a potential Final Four team with the three amigos lus Lazar until Dominic broke his foot.  He made a gallant effort to come back against Mizzou in the second round - I still remember the buzz around Boise when it was announced that he'd play - but he clearly wasn't himself.  

That was the first year I had tuned in to Scoop, and to this day that announcement spawned the best post I have ever read here:
"Daniel LaRusso is going to fight?
Daniel LaRusso is going to fight!!"

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

My freshman year was the 11-12 season. I feel like if Otule doesnt tear his ACL we make the final 4 that year. I remember Jamil having to play the 5 and he didnt have Davante as a backup because he sprained his knee and was out for a couple of games.

[MarquetteDano]

I would vote for 1991-92. Expectations were really high.  The talented frosh group now were sophomores.  Shannon Smith and Miller were on the team.  Gates and McCaskill (though Amal was a project).  New conference (Great Midwest).

And we disappointed.  Finished 16-13.  I am not sure we even got an invite to the NIT.  Too much talent on the team to be 16-13 with the schedule we had:

Miller
Logterman
Curry
Key
McIlVaine
Shannon Smith
Will Gates
McCaskill

What a disappointment.

[willie warrior]

This season ranks up there but pick any Dukiet year and that would be the winner.

[Dawson Rental]

I'm going to go with '04-'05. We'd dealt with the crushing feeling of going from a Final Four to the NIT the year before, but things looked better initially in 04-05. Diener was a senior, Novak was coming into his own as a junior, everyone expected Dameon Mason to take a giant leap forward ... By the end of the year Rob Hanley was our starting point guard, Marcus Jackson was bringing the ball up the floor, Mason showed little to nothing. The team couldn't even inbound the ball against TCU in the Conference USA tournament (read that sentence again and weep). It all ended with an opening NIT loss to Western Michigan and at a half-empty Bradley Center.

Never again.

This is a fantastic thread idea.  It provides some perspective in the midst of what is easily the most frustrating season (for me) of the Buzz era.

[Fullodds]

1985-86

Frustrating when your best memory is a close loss to UNC

[GOO]

I would vote for 1991-92. Expectations were really high.  The talented frosh group now were sophomores.  Shannon Smith and Miller were on the team.  Gates and McCaskill (though Amal was a project).  New conference (Great Midwest).

And we disappointed.  Finished 16-13.  I am not sure we even got an invite to the NIT.  Too much talent on the team to be 16-13 with the schedule we had:

Miller
Logterman
Curry
Key
McIlVaine
Shannon Smith
Will Gates
McCaskill

What a disappointment.

I agree.  And as much as I like and respect Miller and his ability to handle the ball, pass and play D, can you imagine if we had a point guard that could shoot at all from 3!  I always thought Miller's inability to even pretend to be able to shoot it, really hurt that team, much as now with D.Wilson.  Teams played off him and were able to double down on our bigs.   A Diener on that team along with Mac, Key and Logterman and it would have been interesting to see what we could have done.
But, because Miller was so good at so many things, I hate to even raise it as an issue.  Maybe his assist totals made up for his inability to shoot, but I always wondered what would have been if he could hit some 3's with consistency.   

One of the Dukiet teams where the players almost literally quit the team, had to be one of the worst seasons as well.   

[tower912]

 Yeah, Tony Miller couldn't shoot, couldn't shoot free throws, defenders played off of him, and he is a legend.   

[TJ]

This won't be a popular opinion, but last year was sooooo frustrating.  This year is much worse results-wise, but expectations have fallen to the point where I don't get as frustrated as I did with last year's team.  Even in the tournament they make the Elite 8, but they did it in the most frustrating possible way.

I wasn't around before '98 so I can't comment before that.  I agree about '04-05 being very frustrating.  '08-09 was too.  Speaking of frustrating injuries, '06-07 when McNeal hurt his wrist and the rest of the team looked like 5th grade girls against MSU was REALLY frustrating for one game.  Tulsa, Stanford, Alabama, Washington, Missouri...  It's been a frustrating decade.   

[Coleman]

This won't be a popular opinion, but last year was sooooo frustrating.  This year is much worse results-wise, but expectations have fallen to the point where I don't get as frustrated as I did with last year's team.  Even in the tournament they make the Elite 8, but they did it in the most frustrating possible way.

I'm willing to hear you out on last year...but you aren't giving any reasons. What made it frustrating?

I thought last year was the most enjoyable year of MU basketball since 2003. The whole season, not just the end results.

[The Love House]

Frustrating when your best memory is a close loss to UNC

As a freshman in 1985-86, I was watching that game at McCormick and little did I know then how true that would be. Unfortunately for those in my graduating class, that UNC loss would not be just the best memory from that year, but for all 4 years we were there. Hands-down, the worst team(s) in the last 50 years were the 87-88 and 88-89 teams. I was at nearly every home game and, with the exception of Tony Smith and (arguably) Trevor Powell, those teams were a collection of Division II athletes that Dukiet slapped together out of desperation. I remember when Majerus left after '86, the Marquette Tribune accused him of "leaving the cupboard bare", and although he vehemently denied it, it really was true. I think Majerus knew early in the 85-86 season that he was leaving for the NBA and just kinda gave up on recruiting. So when Dukiet got there he had no choice but to fill the void with some low-end recruits from the New Jersey area that he had been pursuing at St. Peters - Mark Anglavar, Joe Nethen, and Anthony Candelino. Dukiet actually managed to recruit a couple top 100 guards the next year (Gerald Posey and Corey Floyd) but Posey quit the team and Floyd never set foot on campus due to academics. With injuries, redshirts, academic issues, and guys quitting because they didn't like Dukiet, we played most of the 87-88 season with only 1 active player over 6-6. Things were so bad in 88-89 that the student section would break out into applause simply because they managed to get the ball over half-court without turning it over.  We were getting blown out by teams like Cleveland State, Iona, Fordham, and the dreaded Evansville Purple Aces with their short sleeve jerseys. It was definitely the low point of the post-Eddie Hickie years. You had to be there to "appreciate" how frustrating it was. Thank god for Kevin O'Neill!!

[Dawson Rental]

Yeah, Tony Miller couldn't shoot, couldn't shoot free throws, defenders played off of him, and he is a legend.   

Among other things he excelled at feeding the post.  That's the big difference with a Derrick Wilson comparison.  Is Tony still MU's assists leader?

[MarquetteDano]

Is Tony still MU's assists leader?

Pretty sure by a wide margin.

[Dawson Rental]

I'm willing to hear you out on last year...but you aren't giving any reasons. What made it frustrating?

I thought last year was the most enjoyable year of MU basketball since 2003. The whole season, not just the end results.

First Big East regular season title?  Frustrating?  I'm with you, Bleuteaux, I'd like to hear more too.

[Galway Eagle]

I'm willing to hear you out on last year...but you aren't giving any reasons. What made it frustrating?

I thought last year was the most enjoyable year of MU basketball since 2003. The whole season, not just the end results.

Probably still sore over the UWGB loss. 

[TJ]

I'm willing to hear you out on last year...but you aren't giving any reasons. What made it frustrating?

I thought last year was the most enjoyable year of MU basketball since 2003. The whole season, not just the end results.

Hard to make an empirical argument given the results - BE title, Elite 8.  But I just remember being so frustrated so often along the way...

Getting smacked down by UF sucked.
Losing @UWGB and worse scoring only 47 points.
MU 49 - GU 48: I know GU was a good defensive team, but that was an incredibly frustrating game.  Offense was so bad.
@PITT almost threw that game away.
@Cinn: 13 points in the first half.  Then claw their way back in the second half only to lose in OT.  It was the most frustrating game of the season.  You could be happy they scrapped their way back, but I was annoyed they played so badly in the first half that they had to.
@UL: in retrospect UL was good, but it was frustrating to see the offense yet again seem to forget how to play, not to mention yet again MU lays an egg against UL.
@St Johns, with a Big East title on the line they played terrible and barely squeaked out an OT win.
Davidson: I know I'm the only person here, but don't even get me started.  That game pissed me off on so many levels.  Sooo frustrating.
Butler: Better than Davidson, but still played down to the competition.
Elite 8 vs SU: 39 points?  Seriously?  So bad.  I'm glad we got to the Elite 8, but show up to the game.

Those are only the highlights as I don't remember every game, but the team was so good at times and then it seemed to forget how to play offense for long stretches.  They were their own worst enemy it seemed to me.  Like I said, I'm guessing this opinion will be unpopular and half of my complaints above were wins.  I just know that I was very frustrated with that team.

[TJ]

Probably still sore over the UWGB loss. 

Wasn't able to watch that game actually.  There were just so many ups and downs last year.  I think if they lose to Davidson that everyone is agreeing with me.