We’ve seen some preseason prognostications from journalists and some predictions from this UMHoops community. MattD made a point in another thread that because of our fanaticism, we can’t be objective or realistic about our expectations for our team. I think that’s hard to argue. That, as a group, we tend to have higher hopes, etc. in our team, even if every individual truly believes they are being completely reasonable and objective (which isn’t the case either). On the other hand, people like us generally know a lot more about our team (I would hope) than the national writers who do many of these polls.
So what I’d like to do is poll everyone who wishes to respond and compare it to the predictions of the national media (and at the end of the day, compare both to postseason results). In fact, I’ve already been collecting data from posters in this Forum and also on the Blog side of UMHoops and from the following national publications: informal B1G writers’ poll, Blue Ribbon, Athlon, Lindy’s, Sporting News (are there any more currently? I know more will come so if you see one, feel free to link it).
Personally, I sometimes have a hard time even predicting, with all the unknowns, let alone publicizing my predictions. But I think it’s a fun exercise. (If other fan-bases would do it, we could actually find out which fan-base is most objective and/or knowledgeable.) Without further ado, please predict any or all of the following (feel free to use ranges if that’s what you feel comfortable with):
Data point - My Prediction
B1G Ranking - 3
B1G wins - 12
National Ranking - 22
Overall Wins - 24 (includes postseason - please specify)
Tournament Seed - 6
Finally, please try to refrain from responding to others’ predictions, or at least criticizing, but feel free to provide justification for yours (in may help educate others). I’d like to gather as much data as possible and would like to avoid this thread being closed.