Taking our victory laps and accepting our lumps
The Pig Sty's Max and Kyle take a look back at their SEC Basketball Predictions column
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
We know that you have plenty of options for Arkansas Razorbacks Basketball coverage, but you chose to be here reading our articles, watching Razorback Reels, and listening to Rabid Reactions (when Max decided to record one) this season, and we appreciate that. We owe you something for your loyalty—something most other Hog coverage won’t give you.
We’re going to be vulnerable. We’re going to expose our faults. We’re going to lay our SEC basketball predictions post bare for you to see where we were right and where we were way, way wrong. We’ll own our faults, and, yes, we’ll gloat about our victories.
It’s the Pig Sty’s version of Antiques Roadshow, and you get to see which of our predictions were precious little trinkets and which were absolutely worthless.
Preseason Predictions Victory Laps
Max
Let’s start with my predictions on SEC standings. I called that Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama would have the best records in SEC play this season. Tennessee was the class of the conference, and while I may have been too high on them, predicting them to go 18-0, they did finish the regular season in first. Alabama and Auburn finished in a four-way tie for second, so I’m counting that as a win.
I also want to claim a few pseudo-victory laps. First, I did predict that a team would go winless in conference games this year. I just anticipated Vanderbilt to do it instead of Missouri. I’ll take another partial victory jog—a Sunday stroll, if you will—on the fact that I was much higher on South Carolina than Kyle was. Neither of us saw them finishing 13-5, but I at least had them as a .500 basketball squad.
Finally, I have a 50/50 shot of Auburn winning the SEC tournament today and making that prediction another correct one for me.
Kyle
I did so bad in my SEC Basketball predictions that it’s kind of embarrassing to even bring them back up. I was thinking we could just move on instead of reminding people that we spent New Years’ Eve putting out our picks for individual team records, player of the year, coach of the year, and SEC Tournament champion.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. Despite my overall predictions being poor, I did predict the Kentucky (13-5) and Mississippi State (8-10) conference records correctly. And I chose Tennessee as my regular season champion.
That’s it. Those were the only positives for me this year. Hopefully I’ll do better when filling out my NCAA Tournament bracket this evening.
Preseason Prediction Lumps
Max
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Let’s start eating the conjoined-twin elephants that were my incorrect predictions this season.
Let’s start with those weirdos down in College Station, Texas because they really hit me with a double whammy. Have you ever been gut-punched by a dude named Buzz in a three-piece suit? I have. I predicted the Aggies to go 14-4 and finish in a three-way tie with Alabama and Auburn. They went 9-9 on their way to a seventh place finish.
But wait, there’s more! I also predicted Wade Taylor IV from Texas A&M to win Player of the Year, and while he did finish as a First Team All SEC performer, he didn’t win the main solo prize. Dalton Knecht garnered that award, and pretty deservingly so.
For my final lump, Let’s Call Those Hogs…into court for their day of reckoning. Judgement is upon the Razorbacks, and it will be neither swift nor kind. I predicted Arkansas to go 8-10, which apparently was still too generous after the Hogs finished 6-12 in SEC play and had the school’s first losing season since 2009-2010.
Kyle
My predictions are full of lumps. It’s like I took a store-bought cake mix, poured in water, oil, and an egg, gave it one stir and shoved it right in the oven, completely skipping the direction to mix. There might be a good bite or too, but that cake is too lumpy to eat.
I completely overestimated Arkansas. I forgot to take off my rose-colored glasses and wore them on into the night. All season, I kept thinking we would figure it out and make a turn around. Part of me even thought Muss could pull an NC State and win 5 games in 5 days and still make it to the NCAA Tournament. I was wrong. LUMP.
I also gave Chris Beard too much credit at Ole Miss. He’s a great coach. Hey, I wouldn’t even mind if he ended up being the coach at Arkansas one day. But he simply didn’t have the roster this year to compete at an elite level. I mean, they could only muster a 26 point win over the lowly Hogs at home. Maybe next year, Beard. LUMP.
I could never have imagined Missouri being so bad. Prior to this season only 2 SEC teams have failed to win a single game in conference play in a season with at least 10 games played: 1953-54 Georgia Tech squad went 0-14 and 2018-2019 Vanderbilt went 0-18. And yet, despite going 0-18 themselves, they have secured at top 5 recruiting class and seem to be in good shape overall as a program. LUMP.
But my biggest lump of all was missing on South Carolina. They finished second in the conference and coach Lamont Paris won coach of the year. But I didn’t just not realize they would be that good, I thought they would be bad. I picked them to finish 3-15. Boy was I wrong. LUMP.
That’s it. Happy Sunday. Drink a green beer. Reflect on your own victory laps and lumps this season. And fill out your NCAA tourney bracket. Tune in Tuesday for Max and Kyle’s March Madness tournament preview.