Complacency in All Levels and Sports

It happens all the time in all levels and sports. It happens in High School Sports, College Sports and even Professional Sports. Yes, athletes that get paid to perform at the highest level get complacent especially when they have reached the pinnacle game or series of their respective sport. It happened to The Texas Rangers when they played The San Francisco Giants in the 2010 World Series. They were projected to win The World Series by many experts but it was obvious that every Ranger was happy to be able to participate in their first World Series in the history of their franchise and seemed like they forgot that a final series still needed to be made in order to be consider champions. However, The San Francisco Giants had the mentality that they were going to achieve a feat that had not been accomplished since the move from New York to San Francisco in the 1950s, in which they did.

It happened again to Butler during the 2011 NCAA Basketball "March Madness" Finals against UCONN, and I could not help but to question Butler's mentality! I understand if a team gets beaten but if a team beats themselves which causes the opponent to come out as victor because of some sort of complacency, then their is a problem. That is what it seemed to happen to Butler, after reaching their second straight NCAA Finals Game. Butler seemed to be content to be in the Finals whereas UCONN seemed the opposite. UCONN had a sense of urgency and knew what the stakes of winning or losing this chance that for some schools is once in a lifetime and it was evident that they were not going to let Butler defeat them more or less beat themselves. In sports, when an opponent gets beaten that usually means that the victor was better prepared/coached and simply imposed their will but when an opponent beats themselves that usually means that the victor was not better but kept their composure, made less mental mistakes and simply wanted to win more than their counterpart. That is what happened at the 2011 NCAA Basketball Finals. UCONN did not beat Butler, Butler beat themselves, thus giving way for UCONN to capture the 2011 Championship. However, this is not the first time a team gets perceived as being complacent in the most important game in their respective sport and levels.

Not to take anything away from anyone because it is an accomplishment to make it to the finals but making it to the finals does not make you a champion, it only gives you a sense of pride saying that your a finalist. Every team has a goal to capture a championship but until that very last game or series is completed, no one is a champion. A champion is crowned once that game or series is completed and the score is higher than the opponent only than will you achieve the goal that was set at the beginning of the season. Which leads me to ask: Why do teams get complacent once they have reached the pinnacle series or game of their sport?