They were a juggernaut.
The 2014-2015 Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team had top-end talent up and down the roster. Led by a legendary coach, the team had elite-level prowess, talent, and competitive drive. And this made them a nightmare to compete against.
The Wildcats could beat you with offensive skill. They could smother you defensively. And they could outlast you with superior depth.
The college basketball season is a grind, and even the best teams end up with a few blemishes along the way. But not Kentucky.
The Wildcats finished off the regular slate with a 31-0 record. Only 7 of those games were decided by less than 10 points.
As they entered postseason play, a sense of inevitability reigned.
All Kentucky had to do was win 9 more games. That would make them the first men’s team to go 40-0 in a season.
The Wildcats rolled through their conference tournament and the early rounds of the national tournament. But once they reached the Final Four (the national semifinals), something strange happened.
Kentucky’s opponent — the Wisconsin Badgers — matched the Wildcats blow for blow, before pulling away in the final minute.
The Badgers won by 7 points. And just like that, Kentucky’s season was over.
There would be no national championship. No coronation as the best team ever. Kentucky’s ballyhooed players would watch the title game along with the rest of us.
The Wildcats had played 1,574 minutes of masterful basketball that season. But the 1,575th minute cost them everything.
College basketball is full of peculiarities.
Pro basketball has evolved into a spectacle, with elite players competing in modern arenas blaring hip-hop beats.
But college ball remains rugged and antiquated. Games take place in old-school fieldhouses, with cheerleaders and pep bands providing the soundtrack. Jump ball confrontations are replaced by an alternating possession arrow. And, in certain circumstances, players must make one free throw to get a chance at a second. (The dreaded 1 and 1.)
These oddities are widely forgiven, though. For the college basketball season ends with perhaps the most iconic tournament in sports.
The NCAA Tournament — widely known as March Madness — pits the top 68 teams in the country against each other. Teams face off against each other, with the winners moving on and the losers going home. This continues until there is one team left standing.
In theory, March Madness is not all that different than other postseason tournaments. Both the college and professional versions of American football have a single-elimination tournament at the end of their seasons. Part of the World Cup in soccer uses the same format.
But none of these tournaments have the size or scope of the NCAA Tournament. And none are as inherently cruel to elite teams as March Madness.
You see, to win it all, college basketball teams must win 6 games in a row. Those 6 wins must come against other great teams, under the brightest of lights.
This requires a mindset shift. It requires teams to embrace three simple words.
Survive and advance.
Indeed, it’s the most scrappy and desperate teams that have the edge in March. This has led to all manner of surprises over the years — with “Cinderella” teams knocking out more highly-regarded opponents.
Kentucky was able to avoid such an upset in the early rounds of the 2015 tournament. But the sand ran out in the Final Four.
Wisconsin proved to be scrappier than the Wildcats with the game on the line.
The Badgers survived. They advanced.
I often think about the 2014-2015 Kentucky Wildcats. The team that had it all yet walked away with nothing.
It’s tough to know what to make of them.
Generations of evidence show that The Two T’s — talent and teamwork — provide a winning combination. Darwin’s theory of evolution states that the stronger species survives, adapting to adversity more deftly than its foes.
Yet, the loss to Wisconsin defies both trends. The Badgers were no slouch that season, but they weren’t at Kentucky’s level. If both teams were firing on all cylinders, Wisconsin would seemingly be toast.
But they weren’t. The Badgers took the Wildcats’ best shot and prevailed.
In the wake of this outcome, what should we do?
Should we cast off Darwin and The Two T’s, declaring them false prophets? Absolutely not. That would be as foolish as denying the existence of gravity because a party balloon floated toward the ceiling.
Should we shrug our shoulders and chalk this all up to an anomaly? Perhaps. But it doesn’t help us make heads or tails of what happened.
No, the best course of action is to consider what the Kentucky Wildcats could have done better. And then to avoid those same pitfalls in our own life.
The answer to that is clear.
For whatever reason, the Kentucky Wildcats failed to take stock. They failed to consider what they had, and what would be needed to protect it.
This led them to get outscrapped at the worst possible time.
We must not follow suit.
As I write this, another college basketball season is in full swing.
Some teams have risen to the top. Others have stumbled but have some time to right themselves.
Indeed, March Madness is months away for college basketball. But for the rest of us, Selection Sunday is upon us.
We’re heading into a new year rife with uncertainty. Persistent inflation and accelerating layoffs are all over the headlines. The long tail of a pandemic and societal divisiveness each linger beneath the surface.
For quite a while now, we’ve relied on our attributes to thrive. The parallel rise of the tech and venture funding industries has provided ample growth opportunities. When it came to our lives, our careers, and our financial futures, we had leverage.
But now, the tables are turning.
Those around us are battening down the hatches. Growth is turning to maintenance. Excess opportunities are drying up.
In the wake of all this, we need to do what the Kentucky Wildcats didn’t. We need to adapt.
Instead of deciding which options best maximize our talents, we should consider how we can hang on to what we have.
We must be scrappy. We must be gritty.
We must survive and advance.
I’m ready to rise to the moment. Are you?