I have been contemplating your post during my mourning and moping. I had never thought of it from your suggested viewpoint. Wow. a four-times-in-a-row NCAA champion, undefeated and holding the ball with about 15 seconds left in a tied semifinal game with a possible match against a team (SC) that they had already beaten comfortably eventually waiting for them in the final. then, to have it all disappear in an instant. Who knows the lingering effect in 2018 and, for that matter, in 2019?
Pardon my first comparison, but the words work so well. A stand of trees near Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is called the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy." It is marked with a plaque.
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Then I thought about the 1996 Atlanta Braves Baseball team. 1995 World Series Champs, with three eventual HOF pitchers, overwhelm the Yankees in New York in the first two games. After a hiccup in game three, they hold a 6-run lead midway in game four. It seems that they will hold on at 6-3 in the eighth inning, and go up 3 games to 1, with top reliever Mark Wohlers facing backup Yankee catcher Jim Leyritz. The High Water mark of the Atlanta Braves. Leyritz hits a 3-run home run, the Yankees win in extra innings, win the next two games, and the Braves, despite all that talent, never get very close in succeeding years.
I welcome other high-water examples (perhaps the 1992 UNLV MCBB team vs. Duke, though there were some upcoming sanctions, or the 2001 New York Yankees going against the Diamondbacks in ninth inning of in game 7) but I am hoping not to see that last 15 UCONN /MS ST seconds commemorated any time soon.