Coaches often talk in clichés. I call many of those clichés “foam peanuts”. Those are the little pieces of foam that are used to protect shipped packages. Foam peanuts have a basic purpose, but they are fluffy and a little bit annoying, and there is definitely a better way to accomplish the function they are supposed to perform - just like coach clichés. One such foam peanut is the following, “We found a way to win.”

There is a lot of gray area between finding a way to win and just getting lucky. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Take a look at the variety of ways the Hoyas have won close games this season: Roy Hibbert drains a three-pointer vs. UCONN with 4.2 remaining on the clock; Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn shoots a game-winning shot that just barely rims out; Patrick Ewing blocks a last second shot at West Virginia that is very close to being goaltending; the Hoyas receive a gift of a foul to beat Villanova with a tenth of a second left in the game. Coach Thompson says it’s the Hoyas finding a way to win; Hoya haters call it luck. So what’s the difference?

Everything. Over the course of a season, every team gets the same amount of lucky breaks (with the exception of injuries suffered). The difference between the teams that win and the teams that lose is the difference between making the most of these opportunities and failing to capitalize off them. Look at the Hoyas from 1998-2004, those teams basically lost every game that was decided in the last few minutes. Nowadays, the Hoyas have managed to have a lot of success in similar situations. You’d have to be pretty naïve to say that the only difference between now and then is that these Hoyas are just luckier.

At NCAA Tournament time, there is very little that separates the winners and losers. Think of Jeff Green’s shot vs. Vanderbilt or Mike Conley’s shot against Xavier. Luck is never on one team’s side; luck is there for everybody. The teams that win will make the most of their chances. The Hoyas are no luckier than any other team. Making the most of a small window of opportunity is not luck - it’s perseverance.