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Post being replied to

Results-oriented thinking by Orangutan

If Arike makes two free throws and ND goes on to win in overtime, you are not writing this post.

There's no doubt that defending a championship is difficult and that the feeling of being an underdog and having nothing to lose worked to ND's advantage in 2018.

And I would agree that the losses to UConn, UNC, and Miami were in part caused by the weight of expectations (as well as by overconfidence).

However, the team played great from the Miami game to the end of the season.

I disagree that Muffet's comments at the Final Four had a negative effect. To me, that is purely results-oriented thinking. ND beat a really good UConn team in the semifinals and came up just short against the #1 overall seed in the tournament.

The Irish lost by 1 point to a really, really good Baylor team. There is no need to find a scapegoat. Sometimes you just get beat by a better team.

ND didn't go down with poor effort or bad body language or anything that would be symptomatic of a team in disarray. They went down making a furious rally and coming up just short.

Except for the part where ND briefly held the lead, I would compare it to Zenyatta's loss to Blame in the 2010 Breeder's Cup Classic. ND was in too deep of a hole and just ran out of track (and Baylor dug in at the wire like a champion should).