Thursday, January 27, 2005
footballs to the head
Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl yesterday wrote that in suggesting the ACC's move away from a double round-robin format was a small price to pay for Miami and Virginia Tech to join the conference and improve ACC basketball, Stewart Mandel proved he had "taken a few too many footballs to the head."Fair enough. But to confirm Grant's diagnosis, I put the chimps to work. And learned Mandel often gets basketball and football confused.
Previewing the 2003-2004 college basketball season, Mandel predicted Notre Dame would play its way into the Final Four on the back of First Team All-American Chris Thomas.
That turned out not to be true. Yet Stewart's faith was unshaken.
The following year, Mandel predicted in his 2004-2005 college basketball preview that Notre Dame would this year make the Final Four, courtesy of Player of the Year Chris Thomas.
Losers of two straight, Notre Dame is presently an unlikely bet to make the semifinals of the Big East Tournament, much less the NCAA Tournament.
