In case it wasn’t clear, we love underdogs. We love the team or player that achieves greatness even though they shouldn’t and shrug our shoulders at the team or player that dominates when they should.
Sports Illustrated: Where The ‘Team Of The Decade’ Didn’t Actually Win A Title
↵Case in point? Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis, a wonderful scribe and television personality, ranks the 2004 St. Joseph’s team as the best single-season team of the decade, even though they didn’t even reach the Final Four.
↵↵St. Joe’s didn’t quite pull off a championship (losing to Oklahoma State in the Elite Eight), but the Hawks, led by incandescent point guard Jameer Nelson, became the first team to complete a perfect regular season since UNLV in 1991.
↵↵That’s nice, but they didn’t actually, you know, win the title. And that’s kind of the point of determining greatness in sports, isn’t it? You have to win it all. St. Joseph’s had a memorable season, but they didn’t even make the Final Four, much less win it all. Who cares if they were the mid-major that achieved greatness in the regular season?
↵Greatest-team of the decade status therefore should go to a champion. Someone like the 2005 or 2009 North Carolina team or the 2007 Florida squad. St. Joe’s was a great story, but a great story doesn’t equal the best team.
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