The best of times, the worst of times

After reading Dustin Dow's "By the numbers" in the paper today and learning that Xavier's 55 wins in the past two years are the most for any two-year period in XU history, I wondered if the opposite might not be true for UC- if the 38 losses of the past two seasons might be the most losses in any two-year period for the Bearcats. It turns out this is not the losingest two-year period in UC history. But it does rank third.

UC was 11-17 in Ed Badger's last year in 1982-83. The Bearcats followed that with a 3-25 record in 1983-84, Tony Yates' first season. That's 42 losses in two years.

They improved to 17-14 in 1984-85, but combined with the previous season that still gave them 39 losses in two years.

The best two-year periods for UC were the national championship years of 1960-61 and 1961-62 when they won 56 games. They matched that total in 1998-99 and 1999-00 and again in 2000-01 and 2001-02.