No matter who wins this year’s NCAA tournament, somebody’s going to start cutting down the nets almost as soon as the buzzer sounds to end the final game.

Cutting down the nets is a basketball tradition dating back to the 1920s. The origin of the tradition is credited to Frankfort High School basketball coach Everett Case.

Everett Case – who won four state championships at the small Indiana school in his 16 years on the job – told his players to make sure they always cherished the memory of their victory and to take a little something with them to help them remember.  That little something became a piece of the net.

The header photo above is Everett Case cutting down the net after his NC State team won its first-ever ACC championship in 1965. By then, Case had been nicknamed “The Gray Fox.”

Although it’s widely believed that the 1954 Milan High School basketball team was the model for the 1986 classic Hoosiers, it’s not hard to imagine Norman Dale and Hickory High embodying Everett Case and Frankfort High instead.

In any case– pun intended – somebody’s going to cut down the nets this year.

The pre-tourney favorite was, of course, the 34-0 Kentucky Wildcats.

Kentucky took its first successful step in Thursday’s Round of 64 with an easy 79-56 win over the Hampton Pirates. The win ups Kentucky’s log to 35-0. Today, the Wildcats face the 8-seed Cincinnati Bearcats at 2:40 p.m. If the Wildcats run out, they would put a nice 40-0 wrap on the season. Which brings me to my first question.

If Kentucky finishes 40-0, would they set NCAA history?

The easy answer is “yes.” Which, to me, begs more questions.

Why?

Is it because they finished the season undefeated?

My answer to that would be “no” because there are seven prior teams that finished their seasons undefeated in winning the NCAA tournament:

 There is an eighth team – the Long Island University Bluebirds – that finished its season undefeated at 24-0 but instead won the National Invitation Tournament. At that time the NIT was even more prestigious than the NCAA.

There are four more schools that finished with undefeated seasons – but did not play in a post-season tournament.

So finishing this season undefeated at 40-0 would not be an earthshaking historical event. However, those 40 wins in a single season would be historic. The 40 wins would be two more wins than Memphis racked up in 2008 with a record of 38-2. Those 38 wins by Memphis are one more than the next-highest single-season win total of 37 – set by Duke (37-3) in 1986 and tied by UNLV (37-2) in 1987, Duke (37-2) in 1999, Illinois (37-2) in 2005, Kansas (37-3) in 2008, and Kentucky in 2012 (37-2).

But wait. What if Kentucky advanced all the way to the Finals – but lost?

That would leave the Wildcats with a record of 39-1. Wouldn’t that be historic? In fact, wouldn’t a record of 39-1 be even more historic than a record of 40-1?

I say “yes” – from a historical viewpoint, it would – because 39 wins would break Memphis’ single-season record of 38 wins.

One way or another, it will be interesting to see if it’s Kentucky – or another team – that winds up cutting down the nets this season.

Barry Bowe is the author of Born to Be Wild, 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant, and 12 Best Eagles QBs.