Bennet Hayes is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @HoopsTraveler on Twitter. Night Line runs on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that evening’s games.
Cincinnati’s dreams of an unbeaten season, wild as they may have been, came to an end Thursday night in the Queen City. New Mexico wound up a point better in a predictably grinding contest, as Tony Snell’s fadeaway jumper with 2:28 to play would close out the scoring. No coach will be happy after a loss, but should Mick Cronin feel any extra pain tonight when realizing that his team’s dream of perfection disappeared? Should John Beilein, Mike Krzyzewski, Sean Miller and Larry Shyatt (coaches of the four remaining unbeatens) be paying any sort of attention to the pursuit of being the “Last Unbeaten Team?” If the March success of past title-holders is used as proof, it’s hard to really say how much weight the distinction deserves to hold.
It happens every year. The eyes of the college basketball world will begin to gain sharp focus in January or February, or perhaps if we are lucky, March. One team will lay claim to the title of “Last Unbeaten,” and for better or worse, we as college basketball fans seem to really care. Talking heads will banter about how long the run can last, where the significant hurdles lie on the schedule, and even if a perfect season is a real possibility. And this buzz doesn’t discriminate; whether you are Duke (the last unbeaten four times since Indiana’s perfect season in 1976), or Murray State (last year’s final unbeaten), the attention will follow. So we clearly do care, and look, it probably should be that way. The notion of a perfect season is a tantalizingly romantic one, having last been accomplished nearly four decades ago, when Bob Knight led an unblemished Indiana squad to a title. No matter how unlikely the perfect season may be, it’s undeniably fun to wonder if this year could be the next one. So dream away college basketball fans, but the question still remains – does this distinction really mean anything?
First off, since only two teams — Indiana State in 1979 and UNLV in 1991, have actually entered the NCAA Tournament unbeaten in the last 35 years (both eventually fell in the title game), it’s worth noting that any March failures of the “Last Unbeaten” have had nothing to do with the perfect season still lurking in the background. In fact, Groundhog Day has not even bore witness to a team with a zero in the loss column in eight of the last 12 seasons.
In the years since Indiana’s perfection, 36 teams have laid claim to the sole or shared title of last unbeaten (if we aren’t discriminating between times of day), with an Elite Eight loss being the most popular end to those seasons, occurring 10 times. Four teams have gone on to win it all, with Florida in 2006 being the most recent example. On the flip side, early flameouts have been relatively rare, with only four teams failing to advance past the first round. Clemson’s 2007 campaign is noteworthy; the Tigers are the lone “Last Unbeaten” to miss the NCAA Tournament field entirely, but I’m sure Tigers fans have fond memories of that 2007 NIT Finals run… Anyways, there is no bottom line here, as results span the spectrum. While an NCAA title is rarely the consolation prize for suffering that first loss, most “Last Unbeatens” have still found their way to at least the Sweet Sixteen, including 16 of the last 19 years.
So no, we have not found the secret recipe for predicting who will reign supreme in March, but the consistently solid results of the squads that chased perfection longest are worth taking note. More important than the analysis, however, is the duty of being a fan, and the chase for the title of “Last Unbeaten” will again be a fun one. There will come a time, as there is every winter, where we find ourselves actually taking a second to ponder if this could be the year. It likely won’t be, yet again, but for either Duke, Michigan, Arizona (a quick glance at the schedules makes the Cats “Last Unbeaten” favorites in this space), or Wyoming, other teams’ stumbles will leave them standing beneath a spotlight that just got a little brighter.