It should be noted that, on the weekend we celebrate a resurrection, UCLA’s basketball program was doing the same thing.
Often in sports, it is not the result that matters as much as the circumstances of that result. When Gonzaga, unbeaten and heavily favored, tossed in a 40-foot shot in the last tick of overtime to beat and shock the Bruins, there was victory in that defeat. It meant that the Bruins were just as good as the top college basketball team in the country. They were just less fortunate.
One can only imagine John Wooden, sitting on a bench somewhere in heaven, rolled-up game program in his hand, nodding and mumbling, “OK, maybe we can get back to where we were.