I was watching PTI on ESPN and they were discussing if Ohio States loss this past weekend is good or bad for the team. One side of the argument says, yes, a loss can bring a team, especially an undefeated one, back to reality. The other side says no, a loss can affect the confidence the team was building with each and every win. My response is this; it can be good and bad. Confused? I’ll elaborate.
I have been playing basketball since I was six years old and have been coaching for the past eight years. My senior year in highschool, we were undefeated going in to the state quarterfinals, the first team in area history to have a 21-0 regular season, very handily beating teams along the way. In that quarterfinal game, we were beaten very badly by a team from the Washington DC area. A team we had no scouting report on and also a team that was, in my opinion, not that much better than us. I believe when we boarded that bus from Cumberland we took a huge ego with us, only to find out that ego’s get you in trouble. I honestly believe a loss or two along the way, although being undefeated was an amazing experience, would have humbled us a bit, and maybe helped us to understand that we are vulnerable. So I guess that would be the bad side of going undefeated.
The good side of going undefeated… well, as I said, having an undefeated regular season was nice, but we lost in the quarterfinals. Would you rather be remembered for winning a championship or going undefeated (in the regular season) and losing, falling short of your goals? I know what story I’d rather tell!
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