BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) – The Indiana Hoosiers sat quietly inside their locker room on March 22, 1975.
They knew what the first and only loss that season signified – one perfect quest ended while another began.
Minutes after losing 92-90 to archrival Kentucky in the Mideast Region championship, the underclassmen vowed to do whatever it took to finish 1975-76 undefeated. Coach Bob Knight promised to make sure they earned it and they would not let anything – injuries, pressure or distractions – derail them.
It’s how Indiana became America’s last perfect team in men’s college basketball.
“It felt terrible and it it didn’t go away for quite a while,” soft-spoken forward Tom Abernethy said, referring to the loss. “It wasn’t so much what was said, it was how we felt.”