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A reasonable mind could argue that Notre Dame was the hottest team from arguably the best conference entering the tournament and it showed why for 38 minutes at Quicken Loans Arena. Thirty-eight great minutes of greatness from Notre Dame beget a 38th win for Kentucky.

Those last two minutes in the Midwest Regional final may have been the most significant two minutes in the college basketball season to date. A paradigm shift. As the regular season wound down and the postseason ramped up conventional wisdom has been that the mounting pressure to remain undefeated would be too much for the young Wildcats. Maybe it’s time for a little unconventional wisdom.

"Sometimes teams want to beat you so bad, they just can't because they're trying too hard."

The source of that unconventional wisdom was Willie Cauley-Stein, naturally. It was uttered in the aftermath of a win at Georgia in which the Cats trailed by as many as nine late in the second half, before -- stop me if you’ve heard this one -- Aaron Harrison made a clutch shot to tie the game with 3:52 left, the Cats locked down on defense, and Kentucky pulled out the win.

On March 3 the opportunity to be The Team That Beat the Team slipped through Georgia’s grasp on its own home court. That was just a regular season game. Now fast forward to March 28 in Cleveland with a Final Four berth on the line, Kentucky now fresh off an all time beating of a team in the Sweet 16 and in sole possession of the best start in the history of college basketball. The legend, the task much greater than on March 3. The opponent also much greater. Same result.

"We know what we can do, and it’s gonna be a great story."

Everyone is now familiar with the above quote from Aaron Harrison following Kentucky’s road loss to lowly South Carolina on March 1, 2014, that dropped the preseason number one team in the country to a pedestrian 21-8 on the season. At the time no one thought much of it, just a kid giving a hopeful, sports-cliched response in a postgame press conference. When the Cats found themselves still playing once the calendar had turned to April last season though, the quote took on a life of its own.

Willie and Aaron’s quotes came at the exact same point in each season, almost to the day. Both quotes came on the road and were in the midst of varying degrees of doubt produced by less than optimal results on the road, given the circumstances of the respective teams. Aaron’s quote was prescient.

This Kentucky team has reached a status that if defeated will bestow history upon the victor and each would be Pat Garrett has come to realize this. A paradigm shift. What those last two minutes in Cleveland revealed is that the pressure to be The Team That Beats the Team may have actually surpassed the pressure to finish the undefeated season.

Conventional wisdom has been that it would be undefeated Kentucky who would wilt under the pressure of the moment in a tight NCAA Tournament game with its season on the line. The Kentucky/Notre Dame boxscore tells a different tale. Nine-for-nine to finish the game. No missed field goals in the last 12 minutes of the game. Meanwhile, late in the game, Notre Dame seemingly abandoned what had been working so well for them throughout as Jerian Grant launched long jumpers -- the first a made 3, the next blocked by Cauley-Stein, and the final a desperation heave that floated harmlessly down to Devin Booker without so much as having grazed the rim.

Kentucky moved on as it always does. Next up is Wisconsin. The same Wisconsin whose season came crashing to a halt in the wake of an Aaron Harrison 3 pointer in the waning seconds of last year’s national semifinals. The same Wisconsin that has been pegged as The Team to Beat The Team for weeks now. Wisconsin is a savvy enough team to say all the right things in the press this week. Revenge? Nah. Just trying to win the next game. Trying to win a championship.

"Sometimes teams want to beat you so bad, they just can't because they're trying too hard."