Losing sucks.
There is a certain aura to perfection, an unbeaten record. Teams cherish it. Teams try to avoid talking about “the streak”-or even thinking about it. Players like to live by the mantra, “Take it one game at a time.”
When a team is on a long winning streak, fans start assuming that they will never lose.
“They are too good to lose!” the over-zealous fan will say.
Winning becomes an afterthought to these teams, and instead, the margin of victory is analyzed.
After a while, when the winning streak reaches 10, 15 or even 20 games, a sense of accomplishment starts to set in. A healthy cockiness emerges, making a loss that much harder to stomach when it finally does happen.
“How could we lose? We were 10-0!”
When perfection is erased, when the buzzer sounds and a team loses for the first time in a season, hopes and dreams will be humbled. Expectations are lowered unconsciously. Doubt grows.
“Are we as good as we thought we were?”
Vulnerability can set in. Players begin to question their skills.
“Do I still have the touch from three point range?”
Coaches begin to second-guess their strategies.
“Does the triangle offense suit this team?”
Reporters begin to ask questions.
“Coach, why didn’t you play for the tie?”
We place teams and individuals who, through luck, skill, or a combination of both, avoid losing, on a pedestal. And we should. Teams that escape the gauntlet of an entire season unscathed deserve our admiration. Indeed, perfect seasons are mythical, magical, few and far between.
In college athletics, perfection has special meaning. We remember Wooden and Knight, Paterno and Bowden, Summit and Auriemma. At this level, perfection is attainable, but rare. Yet, somehow, for so many teams, perfection is well within their reach. It is often just a couple of wins away.
WU coach Nancy Fahey knows a little something about perfection herself. She guided the Bears to an 81 game winning streak, good for second best all-time and surpassed only by John Wooden’s 88 game winning streak at UCLA.
Over the weekend, WU basketball lost its hold on perfection in one fell swoop as two hungry Rochester teams erased the unblemished records of both the men and the women.
One afternoon, one bad bounce, one unexpected courageous performance.
Two teams, two losses, two perfect seasons gone up in smoke.
One loss is okay in the grand scheme of things, as long as it is not in the playoffs, when every move counts. Just ask the WU volleyball team about that.
They were 41-1 going into the national championship match, and they lost. Every player on the team would no doubt have traded in their near-perfect season in a heartbeat to become the best Division III team in the country.
So there will be no new additions to the short list of teams that have gone through an NCAA season undefeated.
Still, these losses are no cause for alarm. While perfection is gone, championship hopes remain. There is no shame in losing at Rochester. UAA away games are always difficult-hostile fans, jazzed players, teams looking to bump WU off its perch atop the conference.
Perfection has slipped by, but there is still time to become champions. A week remains in the regular season; then on to the tournament. Adjustments can be made. Plays can be changed. Team defense can be tightened. WU can still make history.
The Bears still have a chance to become immortalized. They still have a chance to make ESPN’s top plays and USA Today’s sports page. All they need to do is achieve perfection of a different kind.
If the WU men’s and women’s teams both capture the championship, they will become only the second program in NCAA history (Connecticut did it in 1998) to win both the men’s and women’s titles in the same year.
They have lost perfection, but they can still carve out a legacy.