Notre Dame Is Just the Latest to Almost Defeat Kentucky

nytimes.com - CLEVELAND — The most consistent lament of Kentucky’s opponents this season has been, “Almost.”

Saturday night, a tenacious Notre Dame team became the 38th consecutive Kentucky opponent to say, “Almost.”

Kentucky opponents and their fans have learned over the course of a long season never to count chickens before they hatch; never to count Kentucky out of any game.

Whatever the situation, whatever the adversity, they’d been there before — seen it and come back. I’d watched firsthand as fans in Gainesville, Fla., and Baton Rouge, La., went delirious with expectation after their team took a lead, only to be crushed when one star Kentucky player or another came through in the clutch.