This is really interesting. Iâm sort of surprised that we didnât have lots of close games last year, it seems like my heart was in my throat for at least 150 games last year! 
Do you suppose our success in close games this year is due to our run to the natty last year? Our guys certainly should have learned that itâs possible to win under pressure.
is a great question there. I think it is the overall way the program works. The game is never over til
it is. You dont see our coaches in desperation on the side; instead, they are always looking and scheming for ways to win the game with any amount of time left on the clock. Is no secret that we win these games at the end. Has a lot to do with no wasted seconds for 40 minutes. However, the players coming through and making the plays is incredible stuff.
My guess in the past 3 seasons including this one no team has done this better. As a former player I can tell you this is very very tough to do over and over.
Our current streak has reached historic levels:
Totally agree that winning so many games like this creates a different mindset in a player.
I been arguing with o guy on Twitter for 3 days. He says itâs just pure luck .I say we are a better team now and can handle those situations better than most. There is luck involved but much more
It can be both. It was lucky that the Miami kid misheard his coach and fouled Kihei. It was skill that he sank 2 FTs without blinking an eye. It takes both.
Wednesday it was luck but every other time itâs not been luck
Iâd argue that every game played has a little bit of luck involved. There are about 4-5 plays that make or break every game. Sometimes itâs skill, sometimes itâs luck because a ball bounces an odd way and you get an extra possession with 8 mins to go and that allows you to go on a run to keep a game close and then you hit the game winner. You never know what it will be. The trick is to be ready for all those situations and be mentally tough enough to step up when it doesnât go your way. I think CTB teams are the best at that particular part and as a result they have mastered transferring luck into skill
For sure. Iâm just saying that Wednesday night we were the luckiest out of all them
It was only lucky if you didnât think we were going to get a bucket anyway.
After the National Championship, I had multiple people harping on the alleged double dribble, foul on Guy, etc. My go to answer was always: They hit the shots when they needed them to win. No one else did.
An additional counterpoint for this year, is UNC just unlucky that their team of 4/5 stars is 13-17?
Good teams make their own luck
Iâm rather agnostic on the âlucky or goodâ question myself, but if you have the appetite for some nerdiness on how teams perform in close games (or âclutchnessâ) and how that does and doesnât matter for predicting the future, have at it here: Measuring Team Clutchness (Part 2): âŚBe Careful Projecting Forward | by Alok Pattani | Analyzing NCAA Basketball with GCP | Medium
I pulled out a key quote if you donât want to get bogged down in the numbers-nerdiness:
The lesson here? (Other than it looks like college basketball team performance fluctuates even more than we previously thought?) Clutchness, at least the way we looked at it, is not very consistent from one part of the season to the next. The last plot shows youâre probably better off measuring a teamâs average point margin at the five-minute mark to get a sense of its future performance â after all, 35 minutes is much longer than five minutes (we know, we know. Big data science observation right there!).