Editor’s note: During the coronavirus shutdown, Arizona Daily Star staffers and contributors are answering burning sports questions.
Today’s question: What’s the most heartbreaking game you’ve watched?
GREG HANSEN, sports columnist
I’ve only seen the TV replay of Arizona’s 1989 Sweet 16 game against UNLV once — and it was last week on a random ESPN broadcast showcasing epic buzzer-beater shots in the Sweet 16.
Anderson Hunt should’ve been whistled for an offensive foul. I believe that today as much as I did on that emotional March night at Denver’s McNichols Sports Arena.
Top-seeded Arizona led Jerry Tarkanian’s club 67-65 as the Rebels, a No. 4 seed, hurried down court for a final shot. Hunt, a junior who had already made four 3-pointers, was guarded closely by Arizona senior Kenny Lofton, probably the best defensive player on the planet that year.
With about 4 seconds to go, Hunt reversed his dribble and simultaneously created space by pushing Lofton away with his left hand. Lofton fell to the ground. A flop? No chance. The referees swallowed their whistles.
Hunt’s shot swished with 2.6 seconds remaining. Sean Elliott’s final game in an Arizona uniform came to a crushing end.
On the way to the Arizona locker room, I walked slowly past Elliott, who was embraced by his mother, Odiemae. Both of them were sobbing. When the UA locker room door was opened to reporters, the first thing I saw was Lofton, sitting at his locker, his head buried in a towel. He couldn’t stop crying.
The Sean Elliott years were over far too soon.
Norberto “Nito” Bravo, right, delivers a blow to the face of Cornelius “K-9” Bundrage in their 2006 fight for “The Contender” TV show. Bravo withstood a barrage of punches before it was stopped in the seventh round,
BRUCE PASCOE, UA basketball reporter
I wouldn’t say as a journalist that it was heartbreaking, but the beating Tucson’s Nito Bravo took in a 2006 “The Contender” fight was definitely hard to watch. Late in his career, Bravo had earned respect of hardcore boxing fans for his hard-nosed style on that TV show and had a chance to face a guy named Cornelius “K-9” Bundrage on TV at Staples Center in the semifinals. We covered it in person because it was such a big deal.
Bravo was clearly outmatched but also unbelievably determined. Even though it was clear early he had no chance, Bravo withstood the punches so well that the fight wasn’t stopped until the seventh round.
Bundrage even said he thought Bravo’s pride got the best of him and that’s why he didn’t take angles but just stood there front and center. But at least Bravo gained some recognition and a free Toyota truck from that series.
MICHAEL LEV, UA football and baseball beat reporter
In my “earliest sports memory” entry, I noted that the Chicago Cubs did not have a single winning season between 1973 and ’83. I was a devoted fan for the back half of that stretch. You can only imagine what it was like when the Cubs actually won the NL East in 1984.
They faced the Padres in the NLCS. For reasons that still aren’t entirely clear, the first two games were in Chicago, with the final three scheduled for San Diego. The Cubs swept the games at Wrigley, winning 13-0 and 4-2. They were one win away from making the World Series for the first time since 1945.
The Padres won Game 3 easily. Game 4 was knotted at 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth when Steve $%#@&! Garvey hit a walk-off two-run homer off Lee Smith, my second-favorite Cub. Series tied. Nerves frayed.
The Cubs held a 3-2 lead entering the bottom of the seventh in Game 5. After a walk and a sac bunt, first baseman Leon Durham — my favorite Cub — let a Tim Flannery grounder go through his legs. The error led to a four-run inning. The Padres won 6-3. Fourteen-year-old me was inconsolable.
CAITLIN SCHMIDT, sports enterprise reporter
The Colts’ 2010 Super Bowl loss was particularly rough, since I was waitressing at a sports bar on the east side that was packed full of Saints fans.
Naturally, I was wearing my Peyton Manning jersey, making me an easy target. Waiting tables in a sports bar during the Super Bowl is stressful enough as it is, but when you’ve got a team in the game, it’s a whole other level of difficult. As soon as the game was over, I was rushing to get all my tables their bills and struggling to process the loss. I remember almost bursting into tears in the middle of it when a Saints fan lifted me off the floor to scream “Loser” in my face. Luckily, I made some decent sympathy tips.
Anthony Cook and the Wildcats lost in a 1989 NCAA Sweet 16 to UNLV on a controversial three-pointer in the final seconds. The game ended up being UA great Sean Elliott’s last college game.
MICHAEL SCHMELZLE, sports producer
Arizona’s 1989 loss to UNLV in the NCAA Tournament. This one cut deep: The No. 1-ranked Wildcats and Elliott should have been cutting down the nets in Seattle that year. Instead, they ran into the Runnin’ Rebels in the Sweet 16 and laid an egg for much of the game.
UA battled back late, but a last-second 3 by Hunt (I agree with Greg Hansen, it was an obvious foul) helped the mouthy Rebels pull the upset over my favorite Wildcats team ever — any sport. Tark was snacking on his towel throughout, I’m sure. I’m livid just typing this.
My overall pick, though? That’d be Boston College’s 41-39 win over Notre Dame in 1993. A week earlier, the No. 2-ranked Irish dominated top-ranked Florida State in a classic case of Midwest brute force steamrolling Southern speed. A week later, the now No. 1-ranked Irish, 10-0 and a win from the national title game, failed to show up against BC.
Notre Dame grabbed a 39-38 lead in the final minute only to let the Eagles drive down the field and kick a wobbling duck that somehow made it over the crossbar as time expired and a 41-39 win. Notre Dame finished the year ranked No. 2 behind the FSU team they beat up on, and the program has never been the same since.
JUSTIN SPEARS, sports producer
I was in the eighth and ninth grade when the Lakers won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.
Then 2011 came. Miami formed the big three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Who cares? We were the Lakers! Heck, they could’ve added in another one of LeBron’s buddies and nobody could convince me Miami was stealing the chance to three-peat as champions.
The showdown never happened. The Mavericks swept the Lakers in the second round of the playoffs. Even when it was 3-0 in the series, I still believed the championship dynasty was going to continue.
In Game 4, however, things got out of hand. LA center Andrew Bynum — all 7 feet, 284 pounds of him — body checked Dallas point guard J.J. Barea and was ejected. Bynum immediately took off his jersey in defeat. At that moment, I wanted to climb under a rock.
Wildcats Allonzo Trier and Lauri Markkanen absorb last season’s Sweet 16 loss to Xavier. Arizona lost 73-71 after winning the Pac-12 and entering the tournament as a No.3 seed.
ALEC WHITE, sports producer
It was 2016-17, the season Arizona lost to Xavier in the Sweet 16. My friends and I were at a restaurant on University Boulevard alongside hundreds of other UA fans when it happened. Making matters worse, the Final Four was held in Glendale that year; it would have been an easy drive to go watch those games had Arizona made it. If the Wildcats could have gotten Lauri Markkanen the ball in the final 11 minutes …
Arizona’s Tamara Statman, right, joined senior Michelle Floyd at home plate after the Wildcats fell to Baylor in the deciding game of their NCAA Super Regional at Hillenbrand Stadium.
PJ BROWN, contributor
Arizona’s 2017 Super Regional softball loss to Baylor. This Wildcats team was one of the best in the country. However, the UA made uncharacteristic errors in the last game against Baylor — a base running error, no strategy to neutralize Katiyana Mauga being internationally walked nearly every time and not riding their ace, Danielle O’Toole, until the bitter end. Baylor hit a three-run homer in the top of the seventh to go ahead 6-5 and UA didn’t respond in their half of the frame.
BRETT FERA, contributor
Was it when Duke beat Arizona for the 2001 NCAA men’s basketball title? I found my way to the Metrodome that day as a UA freshman, and while I never would have thought 20 seasons later that would still be Arizona’s most recent Final Four trip, Duke was simply better.
OK, then was it when Arizona crumbled down the stretch to Illinois in the 2005 Elite Eight? No, not that one. We all forget the Illini came in 35-1, was the No. 1 overall seed, and just a few years earlier, Arizona beat a No. 1 Illinois team in 2001 to reach its own most recent Final Four. Oddly, they played three times that season.
My most heartbreaking loss goes back further than that. As a high school sophomore, I watched future Wildcat Luke Walton score 21 points to lead University of San Diego High School — Star sports editor Ryan Finley’s prep alma mater — to a 64-63 California state playoff win over my Chaminade Eagles. The game had it all: a last-second finish, suspect officiating (ahem), and star power. I can’t remember if Bill Walton was there, but three Waltons were in the Dons’ lineup that night – 6-foot-8 Luke, 6-foot-6 brother Chris and 6-foot-8 cousin Kam.
Arizona quarterback Nick Foles scrambles in the Wildcats’ loss to Nebraska in the 2009 Holiday Bowl. Nebraska scored its first touchdown just 1 minute 15 seconds into the game before going on to rout Arizona 33-0.
RYAN FINLEY, sports editor
Arizona’s 2009 Holiday Bowl loss to Nebraska. Arizona fans were soaked by rain and delayed by long lines to enter Qualcomm Stadium to watch the showdown between the Wildcats and Cornhuskers.
By the time most of them sat down, the game was all but over. Nebraska scored its first touchdown 1 minute 15 seconds into the game, made it 10-0 a little less than 5 minutes later and blasted the UA 33-0.
For those who believed the Wildcats had arrived as a national power, the Holiday Bowl loss was a sobering reminder that they weren’t ready.
Arizona got six first downs, Nick Foles threw for just 48 yards and thousands of Arizona fans were sent to drown their sorrows in the Gaslamp Quarter.
JOHN MCKELVEY, contributor
Kawhi Leonard’s shot against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals last year. The ball hit the rim four times! I remember saying out loud, “That’s short” when he got it off. But lo and behold, somehow it went in.
