The same is true for every business owner. And it could come sooner than they think if they’re injured, aged-out of their program, or simply get sick of the daily grind. No one wants to imagine their career coming to an end.īut here’s the thing: It will end eventually. I’m sure you can name some of those athletes who chose the second path and tried to stick around past their expiration dates and saw their legacies take a hit.Īsk any rookie or mid-career athlete what their long-term goal is and they’ll likely tell you it’s to keep playing sports. For athletes, that age typically comes much sooner than for the rest of us.Īt some point, Father Time forces every one of us to make a decision: Go out on top, or try to hang on as long as possible. Retirement begins to loom over everyone once they reach a certain age. I wonder how many coaches and parents and fans are prepared to walk alongside those athletes as they find their new place in the world when March Madness ends? Who will take that walk with you? Those who are graduating or not returning to the sport the following year will wake up on the morning of April 6 to grapple with some of the same questions about identity, purpose and belonging that the founders of businesses face when they sell their company and step off the court on which they, too, have been playing for years. For some of them, it will also be their final time on the court. The Championship games represent the final opportunities this year for these athletes to take a run at the work they love and have poured themselves into for years. From now until the final game is played on April 5, film crews will be capturing the most memorable moments – from the joyous to the heartbreaking – to craft into a video montage played at the end of the tournament over one of the most recognizable songs associated with college sports: David Barrett’s “One Shining Moment.” We revisit those moments and more in this NCAA Tournament photo spread at Trojans Wire.This week begins March Madness, the NCAA men’s basketball championship tournament. The 2017 Trojans won two NCAA Tournament games to make the Round of 32. The 2007 Trojans beat Kevin Durant and Texas to make the Sweet 16. The 2001 team made a memorable run to the Elite Eight, beating mighty Kentucky in the Sweet 16 in front of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, who were expecting Kentucky and Duke to meet in the Elite Eight in Philadelphia, nine years after their 1992 epic in the same city. Yet, there have certainly been bright moments. Such has been USC basketball’s luck over the years. 1 seed in the South Region and had a great chance to advance to the Final Four. In modern times, that USC team would have been a No. The Trojans lost only two games in 1971, both to the Bruins… and they missed the field. UCLA was dominating college basketball on a scale not seen before or since. The 1971 team played in an era when winning a conference championship was a requirement for teams which played in a conference and were therefore not independent. USC’s best team of all time - in the eyes of many basketball historians and evaluators - didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament only once, in 1992… and that year’s Big Dance ended with a crushing loss to Georgia Tech on a shot which is annually replayed on classic March Madness montages. The Trojans have made two Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight since 1961. USC returned to the Final Four in 1954… and hasn’t been back since. The Trojans played in the second Final Four ever staged, the 1940 event when the NCAA Tournament was in its infancy. USC’s NCAA Tournament history is wide but not tremendously deep.
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