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[QUOTE="EricLA, post: 5321438, member: 26"]
Drive to succeed? I just don't get it. It's basically like saying players lack the will to win, or other teams "just wanted it more" (a huge pet peeve of mine).

Every single team in the NCAA's last season wanted to win it all. The further we got into the tourney, the more a reality it became for the teams left standing, and to say that UCLA just wanted it less (to me) seems disrespectful to them.

Elite 8 - UCONN, USC, UCLA, LSU, SC, Duke, Texas, and TCU. At that point, was there a single team who said "Us winning? Nah - we have no shot. Let's not try that hard.". Every single team had 10 toes in and was 100% focused on being the 2025 NC.

This is not to say that when a team is getting dismantled, like UCLA in the final 4 (UConn 85, UCLA 51), or SC in the finals (UConn 82, SC 59 - but it wasn't even that close), that the losing team won't end up with slumped shoulders and become a step slow, but to say they just didn't want to win, lacked the drive to, etc. does a disservice to how hard all these student athletes worked and prepared for the tournament. Just my $.02.
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