WhatIfSports.com NCAA Basketball Tournament

I have no idea if it's accurate, tbh.  It just feels like a dumb cliche that people say.  If you beat a team twice, it could very well be because you're the better team, and beating them a third time shouldn't be any harder than beating them the first two times.

Without doing a lick of research on it, I'm skeptical about whether there's anything statistically significant in this third matchup data.  I believe the Bucs beat the Saints in the playoffs this year after losing to them twice in the regular season, for example, which would support the cliche.  What I'm saying is I imagine there are a number of examples on both sides, and this is just a nice thing that we like to say regardless of whehter it's true.