Maya Moore did the undefeated thing twice at UConn, one of those with current Minnesota Lynx teammate Renee Montgomery. The Huskies didn't lose throughout the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons as part of their record 90-game winning streak that didn't end until late December 2010.
But the idea of going undefeated in the highly competitive WNBA? That's nuts, right?
Sure, the Lynx are now 13-0 coming off a 72-69 victory in Los Angeles over the previously unbeaten Sparks. They did that with exceptional team effort in a game in which Moore was limited to a season-low eight points and had an injured thigh. They now face the Sparks again on Friday, this time at Target Center in Minneapolis.
If Minnesota wins again, the question will be asked: If the Sparks are not able to stop the Lynx, who can? Well, that's the thing about the WNBA: It's a very tough grind. It could be an "unexpected" team that ends the Lynx's perfection if the Sparks don't do it.
"Anybody that's around me knows that I'm a nitpicker, and I can really find some things. But I have enjoyed this team immensely, the energy every time we're together. It's just a really special group." Coach Cheryl Reeve on what flaws the Lynx might have
Plus, Minnesota is not even at the halfway point of the season, and four of the Lynx's standouts -- Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles -- are all going to the Rio Olympics. Add that travel and competition to their already hectic summer, and the notion of Minnesota going unbeaten in the WNBA seems even more difficult.
But the Lynx aren't thinking about any of that. It's just not the mindset of coach Cheryl Reeve or the Minnesota players to spend much time dwelling on the big picture when they're in the midst of painting it.
Leave that to pesky sports writers and obsessed fans. The Lynx themselves are in full focus-on-today mode.
"When we're in season, we kind of keep our eyes on what's in front of us," Moore said. "We depend on our coaches to maintain that long-term perspective, but I really don't plan on looking at it right now."
All of Minnesota's energy will be directed at L.A. again, as the Lynx know the Sparks will make adjustments, especially to try to improve their scoring options on the interior. L.A.'s Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike were limited to a combined 18 points in the last contest, with the latter only getting three shots from the field.
Credit an interior defensive effort led by starters Rebekkah Brunson and Fowles (who combined for 20 rebounds), plus Janel McCarville and Natasha Howard off the bench. Howard also came up big offensively with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
And there's also the defensive play of reserve guards Montgomery and Jia Perkins, who both could be starting elsewhere.
"I don't think I've been on a team where I'm so confident with the defensive experience and tenacity we have coming off the bench," Moore said. "It just really elevates our team to another level. We [starters] have so much trust giving everything we have into our defense, because we know we have people coming in who are going to do the same.
"It's been a really fun time discovering that about ourselves. We've known since we've been here that you can't win games consistently without a defensive identity, and it's something that has been behind every single one of our championships."
Moore suffered a left thigh sprain and played just under 20 minutes Tuesday, and is listed as questionable for Friday. But if there were ever a season in which the Lynx can feel confident that they can win even with Moore at less than 100 percent, it's this season. The Lynx have had great chemistry since they started this run in 2011, but as Moore mentioned, this team's depth is probably its best ever.
"Anybody that's around me knows that I'm a nitpicker, and I can really find some things," Reeve said of whatever flaws the Lynx might have. "But I have enjoyed this team immensely, the energy every time we're together. It's just a really special group, and I'm not just talking basketball. It's been an incredible experience to this point."
You can be sure that Reeve knows the entire history of the league's greatest teams, and she'd surely like to keep expanding the Lynx's place in that pantheon. But the ring's the thing, as the saying goes, which was demonstrated by the recently completed NBA Finals. The Warriors have the best all-time regular season record, but they didn't get the 2016 title.
Minnesota has a chance to join now-defunct Houston as the only franchise with four championships if the Lynx can win it this year. And if things keep going this well, they could tie or top the Comets in another way.
Houston has the record for fewest losses in a season with three in 1998, when the WNBA had a 30-game season.
The WNBA went to a 32-game season in 1999, and Los Angeles had four losses in 2000 and 2001. The league moved to the current 34-game schedule in 2003. The fewest losses in that format is five, which Phoenix accomplished in 2014.
These are the Lynx's regular-season loss totals for the years they won the WNBA title: seven (2011), eight (2013) and 12 (2015). In 2012, when they fell in the WNBA Finals to Indiana, they lost seven regular-season games. They lost nine in 2014, when they fell to Phoenix in the Western Conference finals.
Perfection seems like a very unrealistic goal, even for a franchise as consistently excellent as Minnesota has been now for a sixth consecutive season. But the fact that the Lynx have gotten this far with that dream still alive says a lot about how this franchise has maintained its hunger even with so much success.