Some of you might remember that I posted a “Way Too Early” ACC preview back in the early summer with my picks for who would finish where. This, of course, was posted before final rosters were settled (and obviously, way before the Nichols expulsion.)
It’s time to look at how I did and I’ll compare my early picks to those of the 4 magazine publications that I pick up every year that are available at my grocery store magazine shelf. I won’t post the names of the magazines since they might (one in particular does) compete with Rivals for customers (there’s really no competition for who is the best: we all know that this site beats the others hands down.) Since no one picks ties in these pre-season picks, I’m using the tournament tie-breaker system to break ties in the standings so that the team’s seed is where they are determined to have finished for purposes of this comparison. Also, this message board keeps re-formatting my columns, so I apologize that they are not in easy-to-read column form. If and when I figure out how to fix this, I will.
Team .................... Actual finish ...... My pick ......Mag 1 ....Mag 2 ... Mag 3 ... Mag 4
UNC...............................1..................1....................2............ 2............2..............2
Florida State..................2..................6....................6............9.............6.............12
Notre Dame...................3..................8....................9............5..............7.............8
Louisville.......................4..................5....................3............4..............4.............3
Duke.............................5..................2....................1............1..............1.............1
UVA...............................6..................3....................4............3..............3.............5
VA Tech........................7...................7....................8............8..............5.............6
Syracuse......................8...................4....................5............7.............12............4
Miami............................9...................10..................7............6.............8.............11
Wake Forest................10..................13.................13..........13............13...........13
GA Tech.......................11..................14.................14..........14............14...........15
Clemson.......................12.................12..................11..........10............10............9
N.C. State.....................13.................9....................10..........11............11............7
Pittsburgh.....................14.................11..................12...........12............9.............10
Boston College.............15.................15..................15...........15...........15............14
I dare say, I think I out-performed all of these pre-season magazines, despite the fact that I picked these months earlier than the magazines (which had the benefit of seeing what the final rosters would be going into the season.) To my credit: (1) I was the only one that correctly picked UNC as regular season champ; (2) I picked 4 teams (UNC, VA Tech, Clemson, and B.C.) in their exact spot – no other publication had more than 2 picked correctly; and (3) every team that I had picked in the bottom half of the conference (places 9 through 15) finished in the bottom half while every team that I picked in the top half of the conference (places 1 through 8) finished in the top half. My biggest misses were Notre Dame and Syracuse.
Below are the 4 links to the picks and team evaluations. It's fun to go back and look at our comments and see what we thought then and compare to what we think now.
Link 1: https://virginia.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-basketball-preview-2016-7-part-4-the-elite.14034/
Link 2: https://virginia.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-basketball-preview-2016-7-part-3.14016/
Link 3: https://virginia.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-basketball-preview-2016-7-part-2.14007/
Link 4: https://virginia.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-basketball-preview-2016-17-part-1.13995/
It’s time to look at how I did and I’ll compare my early picks to those of the 4 magazine publications that I pick up every year that are available at my grocery store magazine shelf. I won’t post the names of the magazines since they might (one in particular does) compete with Rivals for customers (there’s really no competition for who is the best: we all know that this site beats the others hands down.) Since no one picks ties in these pre-season picks, I’m using the tournament tie-breaker system to break ties in the standings so that the team’s seed is where they are determined to have finished for purposes of this comparison. Also, this message board keeps re-formatting my columns, so I apologize that they are not in easy-to-read column form. If and when I figure out how to fix this, I will.
Team .................... Actual finish ...... My pick ......Mag 1 ....Mag 2 ... Mag 3 ... Mag 4
UNC...............................1..................1....................2............ 2............2..............2
Florida State..................2..................6....................6............9.............6.............12
Notre Dame...................3..................8....................9............5..............7.............8
Louisville.......................4..................5....................3............4..............4.............3
Duke.............................5..................2....................1............1..............1.............1
UVA...............................6..................3....................4............3..............3.............5
VA Tech........................7...................7....................8............8..............5.............6
Syracuse......................8...................4....................5............7.............12............4
Miami............................9...................10..................7............6.............8.............11
Wake Forest................10..................13.................13..........13............13...........13
GA Tech.......................11..................14.................14..........14............14...........15
Clemson.......................12.................12..................11..........10............10............9
N.C. State.....................13.................9....................10..........11............11............7
Pittsburgh.....................14.................11..................12...........12............9.............10
Boston College.............15.................15..................15...........15...........15............14
I dare say, I think I out-performed all of these pre-season magazines, despite the fact that I picked these months earlier than the magazines (which had the benefit of seeing what the final rosters would be going into the season.) To my credit: (1) I was the only one that correctly picked UNC as regular season champ; (2) I picked 4 teams (UNC, VA Tech, Clemson, and B.C.) in their exact spot – no other publication had more than 2 picked correctly; and (3) every team that I had picked in the bottom half of the conference (places 9 through 15) finished in the bottom half while every team that I picked in the top half of the conference (places 1 through 8) finished in the top half. My biggest misses were Notre Dame and Syracuse.
Below are the 4 links to the picks and team evaluations. It's fun to go back and look at our comments and see what we thought then and compare to what we think now.
Link 1: https://virginia.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-basketball-preview-2016-7-part-4-the-elite.14034/
Link 2: https://virginia.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-basketball-preview-2016-7-part-3.14016/
Link 3: https://virginia.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-basketball-preview-2016-7-part-2.14007/
Link 4: https://virginia.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-basketball-preview-2016-17-part-1.13995/
Last edited:
