How winning streaks stack up
It takes a particular combination of talent, timing and good luck to finish a season undefeated. The Kentucky men’s basketball team has had plenty of all three this season, and if the Wildcats manage to win the Final Four, which tips off April 4, they will become, with 40 wins, the first major men’s college team to complete a perfect season since the Indiana Hoosiers in 1976. Impressive, sure, but far from a record. The UCLA men once won 88 straight, while the University of Connecticut women went 90 games without a loss–a stretch covering more than two years.
Such streaks are rarer in other sports. In the parity-heavy NFL, New England’s 21 straight wins is a record. The Los Angeles Lakers’ 33-game streak set the NBA mark–a fraction of the college total but still longer than the MLS, MLB or NHL records. In fact, only boxers and tennis players have gotten close to the college hoopsters.