A Swing And A Miss: The Most Wrong You've Ever Been Regarding Sports

[Unocal]

Remember when Missouri lost to Norfolk State in 2012? Or Iowa State/Hampton in 2001? In those respective years when 15 seeds shocked the world, I had picked those 2 seeds to win the national championship.

 

I picked the Colorado Avalanche to win the Cup in 2014 (Thanks Matt Cooke)

 

I had the Bengals going to the Super Bowl last year (forget the PIT debacle- if they beat DEN straight up on a Monday night, they would have been the 1 seed)

 

I had Washington State making the Final Four in 2007 AND 2008 when they got high seeds under Tony Bennett

 

I had USC/Arkansas playing for the college football national title in 2012-13

 

I picked the Denver Nuggets to make the 2013 NBA Finals (57 win team that got upset in what ended up being the Splash Brotheres' coming out party)

 

I had the Dallas Mavericks winning the NBA Title in 2010 (one year too early- lost in a 2-7 matchup to a Spurs team that had the worst regular season of the Duncan era)

[chcarlson23]

4 hours ago, SabresRule7361 said:

Remember when Missouri lost to Norfolk State in 2012? Or Iowa State/Hampton in 2001? In those respective years when 15 seeds shocked the world, I had picked those 2 seeds to win the national championship.

 

I picked the Colorado Avalanche to win the Cup in 2014 (Thanks Matt Cooke)

 

I had the Bengals going to the Super Bowl last year (forget the PIT debacle- if they beat DEN straight up on a Monday night, they would have been the 1 seed)

 

I had Washington State making the Final Four in 2007 AND 2008 when they got high seeds under Tony Bennett

 

I had USC/Arkansas playing for the college football national title in 2012-13

 

I picked the Denver Nuggets to make the 2013 NBA Finals (57 win team that got upset in what ended up being the Splash Brotheres' coming out party)

 

I had the Dallas Mavericks winning the NBA Title in 2010 (one year too early- lost in a 2-7 matchup to a Spurs team that had the worst regular season of the Duncan era)

I don't think it was Matt Cooke's fault... More like Nino Niederreiter...  

[FinsUp1214]

- I thought bringing MLS soccer to Utah was a weird idea and didn't expect it to take off all that much. Pretty much expected Real to go the way of the AFL's Blaze or something: just some sort of temporary "kewl" draw that would wear off in time. Now? Heck, they may be as popular here as the Jazz are, which is saying a whole lot. It helps that they've been a heck of a whole lot better than the Jazz have been over the last few years, but still. They've not only exceeded all my expectations, but have won me over and have gotten me to really like soccer altogether. Which is also saying a whole lot.

 

- To this day I don't know why, but I fully expected the Rockies to go back to World Series after their pennant and win it all. It just seemed like they could've snuck back in and do what the Royals did last year. Well, I forgot to anticipate the fact that they were the Colorado Rockies.

[T-ROY]

Jackets were making the playoffs this year...

[dont care]

I can't say I've been wrong many times but one time I can clearly remember is when I thought Tim Tebow would be a good NFL quarterback. Sure I am a gators fan and of course I wanted him to succeed, and was happy to see hi do well that season in Denver, but he never developed, instead I believed he regressed trying to be something he wasn't after being traded to please skeptics. 

[dfwabel]

9 minutes ago, dont care said:

I can't say I've been wrong many times..

[Sport]

2 hours ago, TRoyConcepts said:

Jackets were making the playoffs this year...

I had this one too, but I don't think it was that bold of a prediction. They won 43 games in 14-15 with an injury riddled lineup. Mostly the same roster minus Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano was coming back plus they added Brandon Saad. It was reasonable to believe they'd improve.

[infrared41]

3 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

I had this one too, but I don't think it was that bold of a prediction. They won 43 games in 14-15 with an injury riddled lineup. Mostly the same roster minus Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano was coming back plus they added Brandon Saad. It was reasonable to believe they'd improve.

 

Didn't they also have one of the best records in the league from January through the end of the season or something? Anyway, I had the Jackets in the playoffs and said something along the lines of the team having a decent shot at making the Eastern Conference Finals this season. Picking the Blue Jackets to make the playoffs is a prediction a lot of people missed on this year.  

[DnBronc]

Quote

I picked the Denver Nuggets to make the 2013 NBA Finals (57 win team that got upset in what ended up being the Splash Brotheres' coming out party)

 

Not a bad prediction at the time. I was impressed with them the year before when they played the Lakers tough.

 

Quote

I had the Dallas Mavericks winning the NBA Title in 2010 (one year too early- lost in a 2-7 matchup to a Spurs team that had the worst regular season of the Duncan era)

 

So did I. I remember telling my cousin that Cleveland and Dallas would meet in the Finals that year right before the playoffs.

 

Quote

I disliked the expansion from two to four playoff teams per league.  I totally missed how much it would keep so many more fans enganged. I stand by my hate of the one-game wildcard match, though.

 

Really? I thought that it was overdue. If they would have had four teams per league in the playoffs in the 80's and early-90's, Montreal would have had a few more playoff appearances. Now, that doesn't guarantee that they stay in Montreal, but it wouldn't have hurt.

[CS85]

• I thought Adam Archuleta was a great fit for the Bears in 2007.
• Any of my hockey thoughts during any NHL playoff thread over the last few years.
• I thought Phil Emery was doing the right thing firing Lovie Smith and casting out Brian Urlacher, but at the time I felt pretty justified since Smith was overrated (his career since has reflected that) & Urlacher was too injured to make a difference.  I underestimated how much of an implosion was to follow.
• I thought Marc Trestman was an intriguing, progressive hire.  BLINDERS FIRMLY ON.
• I was excited for Jeremy Morin, thinking he would be a 2nd/3rd line full timer that would be a great fit for the Blackhawks.  He hasn't done  .  

And so many others I can't remember, but being wrong is part of being a sports fan.

[Sport]

On 4/16/2016 at 9:44 PM, infrared41 said:

 

Didn't they also have one of the best records in the league from January through the end of the season or something? Anyway, I had the Jackets in the playoffs and said something along the lines of the team having a decent shot at making the Eastern Conference Finals this season. Picking the Blue Jackets to make the playoffs is a prediction a lot of people missed on this year.  

Yes and they won 14 of their last 15 or something ridiculous like that. I know they were playing teams who were coasting to the playoffs or out of it, but still they were working like a well oiled machine at the end of last year. Maybe they shouldn't have made the Dano/Anisimov for Saad trade. 

[IceCap]

I thought Johnny Football was going to work out.

[nash61]

I thought Andrew Engelage was going to be a great NHL goaltender for the Leafs. He's now in Italy, and never played an NHL game.

I was right on James Reimer and Tuukka Rask, though, so I'll take that.

[Discrim]

I'd thought Rex Grossman was gonna be the first not-worthless Bears QB since Jim Miller (which says a lot about how many bad QBs I've seen in blue and orange...I figure the only other places where you'd actually think somebody like Jim Miller was worth sort of bragging about are Detroit and Houston), and I thought Mark Anderson was gonna end up as the Bears' answer to Reggie White.

 

Completely whiffed on Corey Patterson...thought he was gonna be the next Griffey, or at least the next Torii Hunter.

 

Then there was that time I thought the Bucks had a 3-2 game lead on the Hawks and I thought they were actually gonna finish them off.  And that period when I thought the Bucks were gonna move to Seattle.  In a "if you love it, let it go" state of mind, I was not only resigned to it, I actually would've welcomed it, if only because it meant Sen. Kohl wouldn't be able to the team up anymore.  

[CS85]

6 hours ago, Discrimihater said:

I'd thought Rex Grossman was gonna be the first not-worthless Bears QB since Jim Miller (which says a lot about how many bad QBs I've seen in blue and orange...I figure the only other places where you'd actually think somebody like Jim Miller was worth sort of bragging about are Detroit and Houston), and I thought Mark Anderson was gonna end up as the Bears' answer to Reggie White.

 

Completely whiffed on Corey Patterson...thought he was gonna be the next Griffey, or at least the next Torii Hunter.

 

Then there was that time I thought the Bucks had a 3-2 game lead on the Hawks and I thought they were actually gonna finish them off.  And that period when I thought the Bucks were gonna move to Seattle.  In a "if you love it, let it go" state of mind, I was not only resigned to it, I actually would've welcomed it, if only because it meant Sen. Kohl wouldn't be able to the team up anymore.  

 

To be fair, Grossman was pretty awesome when he was on.  The first half of the 2006 season he put up MVP numbers before the Bad Rex stuff settled in.  Obviously the Super Bowl and the injuries generally wrecked his perception and his Bears career, but everywhere he's been since as a backup teams have praised him as a leader and a teammate.  

 

Mark Anderson was a weird deal.  Astrological numbers his rookie season that were totally unmerited, as he was a 3rd down pass rusher specialist and the statistical benefactor of a stacked defense.  That said, you couldn't blame anyone for being excited for his future after that year, but Reggie White was probably too far.

 

Corey Patterson had tons of potential too.  People just kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the breakthrough, and it never came.

 

 

[Sport]

5 minutes ago, CS85 said:

Corey Patterson had tons of potential too.  People just kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the breakthrough, and it never came.

 

Dusty Baker never gave up including when they were reunited in Cincinnati. He played Patterson in what felt like a thousand games in centerfield in 2008 and I can't remember Patterson doing anything of note in a Reds uniform. He misplayed a lot of fly balls. 

[pcgd]

I have 2 really bad ones. 

 

I thought Ryan Leif would be the better NFL QB over Peyton Manning.

 

I thought Ron Zook was an amazing hire at Illinois.

 

The first one was all time dumb and doesn't need elaboration.

 

The 2nd one had some bright spots, but even those weren't really that great.  Brought in some fantastic players, but couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag.  The bright spots like 2008 Rose Bowl weren't really that great because they backdoored their way in with a 9-3 record since Ohio State was in the National Championship and the Rose Bowl was still clinging to the Big Ten-Pac10 thing.

 

Now I'm super amped for a coach at Illinois that I wanted fired from the Bears for his last 3 years or so. Sports are weird.

[CS85]

7 minutes ago, pcgd said:

 

Now I'm super amped for a coach at Illinois that I wanted fired from the Bears for his last 3 years or so. Sports are weird.

 

I think Lovie's hire at Illinois was actually a great risk.  I always thought he was more cut out for the NCAA as far as relationships with his players goes.  I don't know how his football-fu will work at Illinois, but whatever.  Hopefully I'll get to see him around town.

[FinsUp1214]

I suppose another one of mine would be thinking Tyrone Corbin would be an awesome coach for the Jazz and was the right choice to replace Sloan, seeing as he'd been in the system a while and would just carry on with what Sloan left.

 

And to Corbin's credit, he did get the Jazz to the playoffs once and wasn't by any means a terrible coach at all. The problem was two-fold: 1) as hindsight has shown, the right thing for the Jazz to do wasn't to "hold on" to how things were but rather to start clean instead as far as the system is concerned, and Corbin being a continuation of the past held things back a bit, and 2) when the going got tough, Corbin always froze. Like, if I had a dollar for every time the camera panned to Corbin when the opposing team was pulling away and his face was basically contorted into an expression which screamed "I DONT KNOW WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED PLZ HELP", I'd be a millionaire. That killed us in crunch time SO many times. 

 

But now the Jazz have moved ahead and started something new with Quin Snyder - who I feel is proving to be an excellent hire - and overall are heading in the right direction, recent meltdown aside. Quin's made the absolute best he could with his roster for two straight years and I hope he's able to stay for a while. I think overall the Jazz have finally realized that maybe the biggest issue that plagued them was holding onto the Stockton to Malone days for too long (see: failed D-Will to Boozer experiment, Corbin, etc.) because there was never going to be another Stockton-Malone-Sloan ever again, and are figuring things out. And they've got some dang good pieces put together, honestly. Now all they have to do is pull their heads out of you-know-where and finish games, and we'll be on our way.

 

[DustDevil61]

2 hours ago, FinsUp1214 said:

I suppose another one of mine would be thinking Tyrone Corbin would be an awesome coach for the Jazz and was the right choice to replace Sloan, seeing as he'd been in the system a while and would just carry on with what Sloan left.

 

And to Corbin's credit, he did get the Jazz to the playoffs once and wasn't by any means a terrible coach at all. The problem was two-fold: 1) as hindsight has shown, the right thing for the Jazz to do wasn't to "hold on" to how things were but rather to start clean instead as far as the system is concerned, and Corbin being a continuation of the past held things back a bit, and 2) when the going got tough, Corbin always froze. Like, if I had a dollar for every time the camera panned to Corbin when the opposing team was pulling away and his face was basically contorted into an expression which screamed "I DONT KNOW WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED PLZ HELP", I'd be a millionaire. That killed us in crunch time SO many times. 

 

But now the Jazz have moved ahead and started something new with Quin Snyder - who I feel is proving to be an excellent hire - and overall are heading in the right direction, recent meltdown aside. Quin's made the absolute best he could with his roster for two straight years and I hope he's able to stay for a while. I think overall the Jazz have finally realized that maybe the biggest issue that plagued them was holding onto the Stockton to Malone days for too long (see: failed D-Will to Boozer experiment, Corbin, etc.) because there was never going to be another Stockton-Malone-Sloan ever again, and are figuring things out. And they've got some dang good pieces put together, honestly. Now all they have to do is pull their heads out of you-know-where and finish games, and we'll be on our way.

 

 

I wholeheartedly agree on both counts. Ty Corbin is a good coach, but by far he's best at being an assistant. And yes, he was dealt a hard hand and therefore had massive shoes he had to fill, but unlike a lot of coaches in the league, he was given ample time (2 1/2 years) to do something with it and he never really seemed to build upon his experience or have much of that long-term perspective. Essentially, he relied on the best players on the team (primarily Al Jefferson--I'm glad Big Al's finally having some success in Charlotte) in crunch time instead of allowing younger players like Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, and Rudy Gobert--now considered Utah's core players--to gain that experience.

 

On the other hand, you have Quin Snyder, who, despite the late-season collapse, has the understanding that it's more like a marathon than a sprint. He hasn't been afraid to take out better players like Gobert in crunch time if it ultimately meant a better matchup. True, he's also shown that he's mortal as well, as like Corbin he hasn't been dealt the best hand either--what with the extended time Gobert, Favors, and Alec Burks have missed this year on top of not having Dante Exum at all--but the biggest difference between him and Ty Corbin is that he also seems to find ways to work around it. I also think he's going to be an excellent coach well fit for this group the Jazz have going forward.*

 

*(At the risk of saying that in this thread.)