I was thinking about this last night -- I feel like in sports we often see cases where a team comes on unexpectedly strong and wins a championship one year, comes back next year and dominates the regular season and looks poised to repeat, but then falls short. Obviously I have this year's team in mind. The 2015-2016 Warriors are an example, as are the 2011-2012 Packers.
In college basketball this is rarer given the turnover from year to year, but then I thought about the counter-example, the last repeat champions.
The 2006 Florida Gators were a somewhat unexpected champion in a season defined by dominant #1 seeds, none of whom made the Final Four. Florida actually started that year hot and were undefeated and ranked #2 into January. Then they hit a skid in conference play before rebounding and finishing strong into the Tournament, where they were a #3 seed. Then they romped, winning by 26, 22, 4, 13, 15, and 16. Sound familiar?
They came back in 2007, lost a couple of early games before going on a run and returning to the #1 ranking in January into February. Sound familiar? They ended up losing a few SEC road games before winning the conference tournament and getting a #1 seed before going on to win the championship.
So there is precedent in a very similar pathway to what this program has taken, which culminated in a second championship.
Or we could end up as one of those other teams whose year of dominance ran out before a second crown.
