There are 351 teams in NCAA D1 basketball. For 350 of them (or 349, depending on how happy the NIT champion is to be the best of the teams that aren’t good enough), the season ends in disappointment.
Each of those teams is made up of a bunch of dudes out there grinding their hearts out. These are guys who are still young enough to have bad games because they’re thinking about a girl or aren’t getting along with their parents. They live multi-faceted lives, trying to pass their classes and find time to hang out with friends all while memorizing their plays, working on their defensive assignments, and training and rehabbing their bodies.