CFB: What Did We Get Wrong In 2018?
"Arizona and Xavier will reach the Final Four" (March 15th): Our consensus picks for the Final Four prior to the NCAA Tournament were Villanova, Arizona, Kansas, and a tie between Michigan and Xavier. We have to admit that we completely missed with the Arizona Wildcats. They came in as a 4th seed and were a trendy pick for make a deep run because of their star-studded trio of DeAndre Ayton, Rawle Alkins, and Allonzo Trier. Unfortunately for them, Buffalo was ready to pull off a major upset. The Bulls won 89-68 and busted a ton of brackets doing so. The Xavier Musketeers were the one seed in the West Region and were picked by many to reach at least the Elite Eight. Instead, they ran into the Florida State Seminoles in the Second Round. They lost 75-70 and were eliminated.
"The Trail Blazers and Thunder will win their opening round series'" (April 14th): The NBA is often the league that is easiest to predict and that remained true for most of the playoffs. However, there were a couple of exceptions, and that began in the First Round when the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder lost despite having home court advantage. The Blazers were one of the hottest teams in the league heading into the postseason, climbing all the way to the 3rd seed, and then they ran into the New Orleans Pelicans. Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, and Rajon Rondo more than made up for the absence of Demarcus Cousins and quickly swept Portland. Meanwhile, the Thunder looked discombobulated for much of their series against Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz.
"Wisconsin will contend for the playoffs, and Miami will go to the Peach Bowl" (August 24th, 25th): These two might be the worst of the bunch as one of us pegged Wisconsin as the 3rd seed in the College Football Playoff. 13 games later and the Badgers sit at 8-5 after the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. Just to make matters worse, the team they beat on December 27th: the Miami Hurricanes, were also projected to do much better by us. The Canes were a consensus pick for a New Year's Six bowl game as we all had them reaching the ACC Championship Game for the second year in a row. We decided to place them in the Peach Bowl to face Michigan, and instead they went just 4-4 in the ACC and had to win their last two regular season games just to finish 7-6 overall with a loss to the Badgers.
"The Packers will win 12 games, and Chiefs will win eight games" (August 31st): Actually, maybe this one was the worse take of all? Not sure. These are all pretty pathetic. We completely missed on the NFC North, as we projected the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings would both go 12-4. With one game remaining in the regular season for each, the two are a combined 14-14-2. It's been a devastating year for the Packers, while the Vikings still have a chance to make the playoffs despite winning just eight games thus far. Speaking of eight victories, that's what we had the Kansas City Chiefs finishing the year with. Although we did pick them to win the division, we thought they'd struggle at first. We were way off on that one. The Chiefs are currently 11-4 and one win from the top seed in the AFC playoffs.
"The Cubs will advance, and the Yankees could upset the Red Sox" (October 1st, 2nd): The Chicago Cubs went 95-68 in the regular season and we thought that would be enough for them to beat the Colorado Rockies in the NL Wild Card matchup. The Rockies were 91-72 so it wasn't a massive upset by any means, but the 2016 World Series winners and the home team in this battle, were projected to win by all but one of us. We thought it'd come down to the wire like it did (the Rockies won 2-1 in 13 innings), but we were off on who would advance. Colorado went on to lose in the next round to the top seeded Milwaukee Brewers. In the AL, the Yankees and Red Sox clashed with a combined 208-116 record. We thought New York would compete to the end, but in reality, Boston made quick work of their rivals.
Photo Credit: ACC Sports.
