Were it not for our run last year, I'd have had to rank tonight up there with the Miami game in 2001 as being one of the two worst MAC tournament losses in recent memory.  As is, I'll rank it one level below, along with the first round home losses to WMU in 1997 and CMU in 2002.

Nahh, only #4 for me.

1 Grunkemyer
2 Losing to #12 CMU at home
3 The 2000 loss to Ball St
4 Tonight

The Grunkemeyer game is definitely #1. We were ahead when he takes the last second shot thus it was sudden victory for them and a lightning bolt for us. Plus, I believe we missed 3 or 4 free throws in the final minute to allow Miami to be within striking distance anyway.

The one that hurt most for me was the buzzer beater by Craig Thames at Battelle Hall in Columbus in '93.

After a night of tossing and turning, I rank this #2 behind the Grunkemeyer game.  We blew a 9 point lead with 2:30 left for crying out loud.  That is a game that you win 99% of the time.  You can't lose that game.  You just can't.  Admittedly we were up and down this year, but after the way we finished, we really did have a shot to make a run this year.  Had we closed out BSU in regulation, I believe the Kent semi-final would have been for the tournament.  Whoever won that game would have beaten WMU or Akron in the final.  And while I think Kent likely would have beaten us, we had a really good chance nevertheless.  That's why losing a game like last night was, to me, so painful.

CMU in 2002 and WMU in 1997 were ugly, but more in the we never showed up and instead crapped the bed variety.  We had this game won, but then gave it away.  I find the inexplicable first round losses to be more perplexing than painful, personally.

The 1993 Toledo game probably isn't even in my top 5, for the simple reason that that team wasn't going to make a run, and clearly had an extremely bright future.  The 1993 tournament was just about getting the requisite experience for 1994 and 1995. 

The Grunkenmeyer shot got Larry Hunter fired. As I heard it from someone who was in the box with the AD(can't remember his name) and President Bob Glidden, when the shot went down the AD went right to Glidden and said "I want him gone". That was it. So it had to be number 1 for a few people, anyway.

While I respect the opinions of all the rest who have posted their most painful memories here, I would have to say that the loss to Ball State probably doesn't make my top 3.  The Grunk loss is probably my #1, with those one-and-done jobs in the LH era probably next in line.  The reason the BSU loss isn't quite so painful is that it fit a pattern that this team was in all season.  Get a big lead and blow it, or on a good day only nearly blow it and squeak out a narrow victory in a game that should have been a "laugher.".  I was hoping that we were getting beyond this behavior in tourney time, but I really wasn't all that surprised that we blew a 9 point lead with 2:30 to go.  I was very disappointed -- maybe even a little despondent for a brief time -- but I wasn't surprised.  Now after a few days of reflection, I'm upset but not at the level as I was after the other aforementioned games.  I guess for me it all has to do with expectations.  I didn't have as high expectations (maybe hopes, but not expectations) for this team as I did in those other years where I thought we could possibly win some games in the Big Dance.  This year, unfortunately, the team never made me a believer -- only a wisher and a dreamer. 

The issue in my mind is simply blowing a 9 point lead with 150 seconds left, when a win would have given us an excellent shot at securing the automatic bid.  While losing to BSU on Thursday isn't as embarassing as the home losses in and of themselves, the circumstances of having the win all but sealed up only to hand it away, especially when we really were positioned to make a deep run in the MAC tournament, make it pretty excruciating to me.  Conversely, in 2002 the CMU loss was embarassing, but realistically we weren't beating Kent (or probably even BGSU) in Cleveland regardless of whether we had advanced or not.  As a result, that one isn't as painful in my mind, but again more perplexing than anything.  But I'm apparently in the minority on that one.

I will watch that game 50 times again before I'd watch a tape of Miami blowing us out a few years ago.

First St... yes, that game was in Toledo. That may have been the last year the tournament was held at Savage Hall, not sure. And yes, Boykins and Dials played in that one.

That was a painful loss for me as well, maybe because I saw it in person... that was the last year we had Trent and we were all expecting a repeat of the previous year, only to be shot down in flames.

#1 painful tournament loss though is the one Benedict Grunkemyer handed us. I still hate him.

This tournament loss probably comes in at about 4th... behind Grunk, EMU in '95, and WMU in the first round at home.

This thread is like a bunch of people sitting around ripping scabs open.