January 21, 2004

Every January, Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl offers the Magic Eight, a group of eight teams guaranteed to include college basketball's next national champion. His picks have included the winner four out of five years, missing for the first time in 2003 by omitting Syracuse.

posted by rcade to basketball at 01:15 PM - 5 comments

He has Stanford and Duke, so I think he'll probably have the winner this year.

posted by billsaysthis at 01:32 PM on January 21, 2004

Good link, thanks. Skeptical note: I haven't followed college hoops that closely over the past two years, but my initial reaction is that picking eight teams gives the predictor pretty good odds. I mean, the tourney is only a field of 64 teams, so if you pick certain-to-make-the-tourney teams (no real feat), even a simpleton like me has a one in eight shot. And even that's really an underestimate of your odds, 'cause no IUPIU is going to make a list like this.

posted by jeffmshaw at 01:49 PM on January 21, 2004

Am I the only person in the universe who wishes that SI, ESPN, etc. would stop talking about "basketball" when what they really mean is "men's basketball"?

posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:35 PM on January 21, 2004

Am I the only person in the universe And you feel pretty lonely there, right?

posted by billsaysthis at 09:57 PM on January 21, 2004

He will regret leaving Arizona out by March.

posted by rushmc at 10:24 PM on January 22, 2004

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