ESPN's Myron Medcalf 0/10 in Sweet 16 Predictions
Given ESPN's consistent undervaluing of Michigan this tournament, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at ESPN "analyst" Myron Medcalf's "10 bold predictions for the Sweet 16" published last week. Here we go:
1. "Louisville over Kentucky by double digits"
-Kentucky won 74-69
2. "Johnny Dawkins (Stanford) to the Elite Eight"
-Dayton won 82-72
3. "Cuonzo Marton, too."
-Michigan won 73-71
4. "Dayton-Stanford will be the best game of the weekend."
-Dayton led nearly the entire game and won by double digits.
5. "Naz Long will be the difference in Iowa State-UConn."
-Long had 7 points, 0 assists, and 4 fouls in a loss to UConn
6. "UCLA will push Florida to the brink."
-Florida led the entire second half and won by double digits.
7. "Overtime for San Diego State-Arizona."
-Nope.
8. "Isaiah Austin's big night will power Baylor past Wisconsin."
-Austin scored 12 points on 5-12 shooting in a 17-point loss.
9. "The Vols will go down swinging against Louisville in an Elite Eight thriller."
-Yikes.
10. "Tom Izzo's Final Four streak will end."
-While this technically may still happen, the prediction was that the streak would end from a loss to Virginia. Wrong.
While I'm usually not one to follow the media-bashing trend, this is an epic and hilarious amount of fail. Literally every single prediction has been wrong. Classic ESPN.
You're getting way too worked up over the use of the word bold.
ESPN should hire me. I'm more entertaining than this cat, and every once in a while I make a prediction that comes true.
Good old Myron Medcalf. I remember last year he expected Michigan to lose in the opener to South Dakota State, then throughout the tournament kept picking Michigan's opponents to win. From his record I'm not sure he even knows what sport basketball is, let alone has ever watched a game of it.
Not only that he was perfectly wrong, but that his "bold predicitions" weren't particularly bold to begin with. I mean, really bold predictions are much more likely to be wrong than right, but I doubt picking Tennessee over Michigan was all that bold (especially since at least half of the so-called experts did just that.).
So not only wrong, but not bold at all.
I wish I could get paid to write that stuff.
Naz Long was the difference of the game.
Is E! or TMZ for sports.
They'd be more accurate talking about the top 10 Kim/Kanye moments.
Unfortunately there is no suitable alternative because everyone else is trolling for views and clicks to keep up with ESPN and get that money.
was thinking of him when he made his billion dollar bracket contest. In fairness, not a single contestant survived the first round.
Look, I think it's hilarious that he whiffed on so many predictions. Some of them, like the Long prediction, elicited guffaws when I read them.
But the "he got stuff wrong, therefore he and other analysts and all ESPN are idiots" bandwagon is silly. C'mon, this is the NCAA tournament, of course he got predictions wrong. The fact that he managed to fail at 10 of them is remarkable and humorous, but it's not like any one of those predictions was off-the-wall stupid.
Analysts are paid to make predictions, they make them, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. If they say things that bear no resemblance to reality, sure, savage them--but if Michigan only barely escaped Tennessee and Kenpom gave them a narrow statistical edge, how stupid is he for predicting that they would actually win? How dumb is it to think that a Louisville team that had been rounding into its best form in much the same way it did last season when it won everything would beat a young Kentucky team?
He was wrong. He wasn't particularly stupid. Enjoy the fail, but don't pretend that somehow we know way better.
Also, those clamoring for ESPN to hire someone with a more numbers method of making predictions: They just spent a boatload of money on fivethirtyeight.com, which did make a series of stat-based NCAA tournament predictions that included some flops. And they also produce grantland.com, which employs some terrific sports analysts. If you don't like the analysts on SC (who are there because they can provide concise commentary in short blocks of time on television) then just turn it off and read.
Well done Myron!
He hasn't failed, he's just found 10 things that won't happen.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasaed132683.html
