Your failed predictions?

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After witnessing Dan Monson's Gonzaga squad lose to UConn in the finals of the 1999 West Regional, walking away from the arena I casually said to a friend, "That's the last time we'll ever hear about Gonzaga."

Needless to say, to this day he hasn't let me live that one down.
 

I was convinced Ron Behagen would be a stud in the NBA. Also, I remember thinking that kid who went to Marquette, Tom Copa, would be the next Mark Olberding. (I'll keep it to basketball. If it were Twins baseball the list would be endless.)
 

Tubby would get us to a final four, elite eight, sweet sixteen, etc.
 

Two of my favorites:

- GopherHole founder Jason Groth writing an article after Aliou Kane committed, saying it was a bigger recruiting coup for the Gophers than Rick Rickert.
- JohnnyGopher saying that Troy Bell is a mid-major player.

Go Gophers!!
 

Lots to agree with on here but more currently. I thought the likelihood Shaka was our coach was pretty good. I was positive Flip was the guy!
I'm happy Pitino is and I think he is the best choice! I was pretty confident the De LaSalle kid was a Gopher. lol

Going back...Landsberger played really hard and was very fun to cheer for but I didn't think he'd have as much NBA success as he did.
Testament to relentless effort. Hopeful Josh Martin is the next Landsberger!
 


SelectionSunday said:
After witnessing Dan Monson's Gonzaga squad lose to UConn in the finals of the 1999 West Regional, walking away from the arena I casually said to a friend, "That's the last time we'll ever hear about Gonzaga."

Needless to say, to this day he hasn't let me live that one down.
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I think it was actually 2000 when Mark Few led the Zags to the Sweet 16 and lost to Purdue in Albuquerqe. In fairness, I agreed with the statement at the time.

They'll have an off year one of these decades.
 

Since this went beyond basketball...

"We're up 21. We're gonna be 7-0. We're going to the Rose Bowl!! This game is over. It's been a long day and I need to work tomorrow. Let's go."
 

Before the 2005-06 season, in one of my Sunday Night Rambles, I predicted that Adam Boone, Moe Hargrow, and Vincent Grier would be that year's Big Ten version of Illinois' Deron Williams, Dee Brown, and Luther Head, who had went to the NCAA title game the year before.

That didn't happen.
 

BleedGopher said:
Two of my favorites:

- GopherHole founder Jason Groth writing an article after Aliou Kane committed, saying it was a bigger recruiting coup for the Gophers than Rick Rickert.
- JohnnyGopher saying that Troy Bell is a mid-major player.
Go Gophers!!
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Bleed...what the heck ever happened to JohnnyGopher? That dude had some great inside info.
 



4 whole pages and no mention of Rico Tucker leaving early for the NBA?!

Count me in on that one.

I also remember making some pretty lofty predictions for Brandon Smith's Gopher career...
 


BleedGopher said:
I thought Michael Bauer was going to be a first round NBA draft pick and I thought his career would be as good as Sam Jacobson's.

Go Gophers!!
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I thought same thing. Many did.
 

I thought Mark Jones would be better than Bobby Jackson when I was in college.

My sig has a good one too...
 



I thought Doc Don would quit drinking so much.
 

I thought Willie Burton would have a better pro career than he did

I didn't think McHale would be as good in his pro career than he was
 

XMan said:
I thought Willie Burton would have a better pro career than he did

I didn't think McHale would be as good in his pro career than he was
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I'm too young to remember McHale but I totally agree on WB. I thought he would be an all star level player. Not a Jordan or anything, but maybe a Mitch Richmond level player. He did hit for 50 one game but I think even Lenard had a much better career.
 

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned "ups and downs" of Gopher sports and I would argue that there hasn't been many ups:

Failed predictions by me

I don't know if I ever predicted Tubby winning a conference title, but I thought we'd be a team that was frequently in the top 3-4 of the B1G and make some runs in the NCAA tournament. I never in a million years would have guessed that he'd be at Minnesota for 6 years and never do better than .500 in the conference.

I thought Rico Tucker would be our best point guard since the much maligned by other forum members Kevin Burleson.

When Tubby was recruiting AJ Hammons, I thought he was another big man who reacted slowly and would remind Gopher fans of Ralph Sampson III. Luckily, I never posted that, but I sure wasn't bothered by Hammons going to Purdue.

I am sure there are more basketball predictions I've gotten wrong, but those 3 come to mind right now.

On the football side, I might have a possible failed prediction with Jerry Kill. I hated the hiring and didn't think he was the type of guy who could ever do better than what Glen Mason did. Would love to be proven wrong by Kill, hopefully this year.

Media prediction:

When I was a kid, I'd go to the library every few weeks and I'd read the Sunday Star Tribune sports section as a way to get my Gopher information. Well, Sid Hartman was mighty high on this transfer the Gophers had from LSU by the name of Terrance Simmons. I can't remember all the details of Sid's glowing praise of Simmons (he mentioned him in several columns), but I do recall that he was the Gophers best player (while sitting out his transfer season) in practice and possibly some reference to Michael Jordan. The Gophers were a pretty good team during that time period, so I was PUMPED to start the Simmons era the next season. When we finally got a Gophers game on TV, I got to watch Simmons play for the first time and I was crushed. I got one look at his jumper and knew we didn't have the next Bobby Jackson, much less the next Michael Jordan. Simmons had a solid career for the Gophers, but Sid was just a tiny bit overzealous in his description of his game. Luckily, the same year as Simmons Gopher debut, the internet became more widely available to me and I started to converse with Gopher fans on the GopherHole.
 

EG#9, your Terrance Simmons memory brought back my memories of Ernest Ngizamabo (sp?) who Sid was pumping up in the mid to late '80s. I recall reading about this 6'9" forward who transferred into Mounds View and could handle the ball, dribble between his legs with ease, and hit shots from all over the court. Ziggy couldn't possibly live up to the expectations that I had built in my mind, but unfortunately, he never came close to even reasonable expectations, the way Sid spoke about him.
 


Before Rico Tucker there was Wesley Washington. I was fairly certain he would lead us to somewhere near the promised land.
 

Pryzbilla leads the Gophers to a great win over Bobby Knight, and I tell someone he's going to be one of the all time best before he gets done here. Unfortunately, he was done here, I think, the next day.

Clem scandal first hits the papers, and I assure a casual fan that morning there's no problem because Clem would never cheat. That lasted about 20 less hours than the Pryzbilla prediction and deep depression set in.
 

After we ran over North Carolina and Harrison Barnes in a holiday tournament three years ago with a team that had Trevor, Rodney and Blake I predicted that team could rival 1997 in its accomplishments.
 

I'll get an early start in case this thread is bumped in 20 years. Tyus will announce he's going to be a Gopher today. :)
 

brucekaupa said:
Here's my best failed prediction.

After seeing Chad Kolander's first two games as a freshman, I guaranteed to friends that he would be first-team all-Big Ten his senior year.
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Jayson Walton looks incredible after his sophmore season. I thought he was on the way to being an all-american. I also thought Sam Jacobson was the biggest signing and he was a sure star. He was more of a complementary player on a very good FF run...
 

Sparlimb said:
Jayson Walton looks incredible after his sophmore season. I thought he was on the way to being an all-american. I also thought Sam Jacobson was the biggest signing and he was a sure star. He was more of a complementary player on a very good FF run...
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Sam a complementary player? 4th all time scorer in gopher basketball history. More than either Trent Tucker or Kevin McHale.
 

This is fun.

I looked at Bryce Webster at the pre-season scrimmage and said to someone, "This guy is the real deal."
 

EG#9 said:
Someone earlier in the thread mentioned "ups and downs" of Gopher sports and I would argue that there hasn't been many ups:

Failed predictions by me

I don't know if I ever predicted Tubby winning a conference title, but I thought we'd be a team that was frequently in the top 3-4 of the B1G and make some runs in the NCAA tournament. I never in a million years would have guessed that he'd be at Minnesota for 6 years and never do better than .500 in the conference.

I thought Rico Tucker would be our best point guard since the much maligned by other forum members Kevin Burleson.

When Tubby was recruiting AJ Hammons, I thought he was another big man who reacted slowly and would remind Gopher fans of Ralph Sampson III. Luckily, I never posted that, but I sure wasn't bothered by Hammons going to Purdue.

I am sure there are more basketball predictions I've gotten wrong, but those 3 come to mind right now.

On the football side, I might have a possible failed prediction with Jerry Kill. I hated the hiring and didn't think he was the type of guy who could ever do better than what Glen Mason did. Would love to be proven wrong by Kill, hopefully this year.

Media prediction:

When I was a kid, I'd go to the library every few weeks and I'd read the Sunday Star Tribune sports section as a way to get my Gopher information. Well, Sid Hartman was mighty high on this transfer the Gophers had from LSU by the name of Terrance Simmons. I can't remember all the details of Sid's glowing praise of Simmons (he mentioned him in several columns), but I do recall that he was the Gophers best player (while sitting out his transfer season) in practice and possibly some reference to Michael Jordan. The Gophers were a pretty good team during that time period, so I was PUMPED to start the Simmons era the next season. When we finally got a Gophers game on TV, I got to watch Simmons play for the first time and I was crushed. I got one look at his jumper and knew we didn't have the next Bobby Jackson, much less the next Michael Jordan. Simmons had a solid career for the Gophers, but Sid was just a tiny bit overzealous in his description of his game. Luckily, the same year as Simmons Gopher debut, the internet became more widely available to me and I started to converse with Gopher fans on the GopherHole.
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Sid? No way.:cool02:
 

I thought Tim Brewster and Tubby Smith were great hires and would lead us to big ten championships.

Yeah I sure blew that one.
 

coolhandgopher said:
EG#9, your Terrance Simmons memory brought back my memories of Ernest Ngizamabo (sp?) who Sid was pumping up in the mid to late '80s. I recall reading about this 6'9" forward who transferred into Mounds View and could handle the ball, dribble between his legs with ease, and hit shots from all over the court. Ziggy couldn't possibly live up to the expectations that I had built in my mind, but unfortunately, he never came close to even reasonable expectations, the way Sid spoke about him.
Click to expand...

I still remember when Sid thought we were going to sign Chris Webber. Even I laughed at that one when he said it
 

'in that clip of his jumper, Buggs reminds me of Kobe' - dboy.
 

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