UK’s season was a failure

Kentucky+players+sit+on+the+back+of+a+golf+cart+as+they+are+taken+back+to+the+locker+room+after+their+press+conference+after+their+Final+Four+game+of+the+2015+NCAA+Mens+Basketball+Tournament+at+Lucas+Oil+Stadium+on+Saturday%2C+April+4%2C+2015+in+Indianapolis%2C+In.+Photo+by+Jonathan+Krueger

Kentucky players sit on the back of a golf cart as they are taken back to the locker room after their press conference after their Final Four game of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, April 4, 2015 in Indianapolis, In. Photo by Jonathan Krueger

By Joshua Huff

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The college men’s basketball season has officially ended. And now the talk has turned from what could have been to who will or won’t stay for another season.

But before the murmurings become a roar, let’s look at whether this UK season was a bust or not.

So was it?

In the traditional sense, yes. Athletes play to win championships and anything less is unacceptable. Teams don’t run onto the court before a game, look up at a Final Four banner or an NCAA runner up banner and relish in those memories. What makes this season tough to swallow for UK is the abruptness of it all. A perfect season with so many expectations and promise was cut short because of a few bad decisions during the waning minutes of the Wisconsin game.

Some players even feel like this season was a waste.

“It’s very tough because we basically went the whole season winning all those games for nothing,” Tyler Ulis said.

College basketball is a vicious, unforgiving beast. Teams can run rampant through the season only to run into the age-old adage, “on any given Sunday.” In this case it was on a Saturday that Wisconsin pulled off possibly its greatest victory in program history.

A program like UK doesn’t play to win games; it plays to win championships. Especially when this season became such a perfect storm. Replicating the success of this year is going to be next to impossible. Players like Willie Cauley-Stein, who squeezed all he could out of college, and Karl-Anthony Towns, who has been on campus just long enough to see half a dorm built, are almost guaranteed to leave, along with possibly a sizeable group of starters from this year.

“We’re athletes. This sucks,” Devin Booker said after the loss. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it at all. This is the worst part of being an athlete, especially at this time. It’s the worst feeling in the world.”

Anything less than a championship for this team was not going to be good enough. Going 38-0 means absolutely nothing if it doesn’t result in hoisting the National Championship trophy. Remember Wichita State from last season? Not many people do, because none other than UK cut its perfect season short.

UK’s season was championship or bust. Like it or not, that’s the nature of the beast. When a team as talented and record-setting as UK wins every game and dominates perennial powerhouses like Kansas and UCLA, the expectations turn, as they did, to “UK or the field.”

In this case, the field tripped up a Cats team that was striving for nothing less than perfection.