BTI's Rants and Ramblings: An Amazing 5 Year Run, but is it also Heartbreaking?

The 5-year run that the UK basketball program just completed is truly in rare company in college basketball history.  In fact, just 3 programs have gone to 4 or more Final Fours in a 5-year stretch, UCLA of the 1960's and 70's, Duke of the late 1980's and 90's, and a Cincinnati run in the early to mid 1960's.  The North Carolina's and Kansas' of the world have never been able to accomplish what Kentucky has in the last 5 seasons.  That's the positive side of things.  The negative is that UK has only cashed in on 1 of those 4 Final Four trips.  That simply proves what a difficult task it is to win national titles.  Unfortunately when you get that close to the title, the losses hurt that much more.  And when you compare our 5-year run against those other amazing runs, you recognize UK might actually be going through one of the more heartbreaking runs in college basketball history: UCLA (1969-73): 5 Final Fours, 5 Titles (10-0 record) UCLA (1968-72): 5 Final Fours, 5 Titles (10-0 record) UCLA (1967-71): 5 Final Fours, 5 Titles (10-0 record) UCLA (1971-75): 5 Final Fours, 4 Titles (8-1 record) UCLA (1970-74): 5 Final Fours, 4 Titles (8-1 record) UCLA (1972-76): 5 Final Fours, 3 Titles (6-2 record) Duke (1988-92): 5 Final Fours, 2 Titles (5-3 record) UCLA (1966-70): 4 Final Fours, 4 Titles (8-0 record) UCLA (1965-69): 4 Final Fours, 4 Titles (8-0 record) UCLA (1964-68): 4 Final Fours, 4 Titles (8-0 record) Duke (1989-93): 4 Final Fours, 2 Titles (5-2 record) Duke (1990-94): 4 Final Fours, 2 Titles (6-2 record) Cincinnati (1960-64): 4 Final Fours, 2 Titles (5-2 record) Cincinnati (1959-63): 5 Final Fours, 2 Titles (5-3 record) Cincinnati (1958-62): 4 Final Fours, 2 Titles (4-2 record) Kentucky (2011-15): 4 Final Fours, 1 Title (3-3 record) Duke (1987-91): 4 Final Fours, 1 Title (3-3 record) Duke (1986-90): 4 Final Fours, 0 Titles (2-4 record) I would take these last 5 years over anything any other college basketball team has experienced since 2011.  But it's a struggle to admit that we've left some wins and titles on the table.  Kentucky has lost in 3 Final Fours in the last 5 years, and in each case they were the favorite in the game.  In some ways that is more heartbreaking than going through the 2006-2009 years when Kentucky never had a chance to win the title, much less go to a Final Four.  Those teams you don't get invested in.  Since Calipari arrived you become obsessed with these teams.  And when they lose, and lose as favorites, it is brutal.  I'd take it over not being relevant, but you have to admit that it's also been one of the more heartbreaking eras of UK basketball. Agree?