No-Spin Zone: A Loss Is Not Good For Any Team
Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 8:59PM 
One Great Season
The only people who say a loss would be helpful are those who aren't coaching or playing for the team with the perfect record.
Would you ever expect to hear Thad Matta or Jared Sullinger or David Lighty say they're hoping to lose a game or two?
Analysts — many of whom were once called journalists — love to dig beneath the surfaces of things, hoping to unearth a morsel of logic that maybe someone else hasn't turned into a column just yet. The hourglass runs quickly, as it's only a matter of moments before an online writer or an expert from the 24-hour cable network suggests the minority opinion. In the modern media culture that values news analysis over news, opinions are the cleavage and facts are merely the turtleneck. Translation? Guessing is welcome.
As a pegged-jeans-wearing University of Cincinnati student who covered the Bearcats during their unforgettable Final Four run in 1992, I studied logic as it was taught by Bob Huggins. Prior to playing Memphis in the Great Midwest Conference Tournament Championship Game in Chicago, I watched as he said with a dry face that he'd rather have beaten a team twice previously than lost both regular-season meetings. Not only did his Bearcats get that oh-so difficult third win over the Tigers the next night, but Cincinnati pulled off a rare four-for-four two weeks later by dispatching Anfernee Hardaway and Co. in the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight.
The point I'm making is that a team losing its bid for perfection this late in the season may help its fans sleep better at night. It may give writers something to drone on about. But for the only people to whom that perfect record is relevant, losing doesn't bring them any closer to a championship.
Regardless of a team's record, its coaching staff has a system in place, and it's up to the players to learn it, execute it and stay faithful to it, especially in February. The ability for a team to overcome uncontrolled variables like a quality opponent, games on the road and other unpredictables will go a long way in determining whether a team stays perfect.
I'm not saying a loss would devastate Ohio State, but it certainly doesn't make the Buckeyes more of a national title contender.
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