Looking Back At November NCAA Basketball Predictions by ESPN

I was checking out the expert picks at ESPN.com this morning, and in them, I found a hearty little nugget of gold. You see, Fran Fraschilla predicted way back in November that Ohio State, Duke, Kansas and Pitt would be in the Final Four. Lo and behold, those are your four #1 seeds, and so Fran wanted to capitalize by proving his prognosis with a link.  Obviously we have a few weeks to go here before anything is official, but if you weren't questioning the "expert" label ESPN provides their employees, perhaps now you will.

I clicked the link to check the Final Four selections.  Plenty of humor came out of that task. However, a quick glance upward at the National POY selection reveals that ALL 10 experts also predicted Kyle Singler as the national player of the year. Here are the Final Four picks for each:

Jay Bilas: Syracuse, Kansas, Michigan State over Duke

Eamonn Brennan: Kansas State, Michigan State, Duke over Ohio State

Pat Forde: Pittsburgh, Kansas State, Duke over Michigan State

Fran Fraschilla: Kansas, Ohio State, Duke over Pittsburgh

Doug Gottlieb: Kansas State, Gonzaga, Duke over Illinois

Andy Katz: Pittsburgh, Kansas State, Michigan State over Duke

Diamond Leung: Pittsburgh, Florida, Duke over Michigan State

Joe Lunardi: Ohio State, Florida, Gonzaga over Michigan State

Dana O'Neil: Kansas State, Michigan State, Duke over Syracuse

Dick Vitale: Villanova, Ohio State, Duke over Michigan State

 

The final tallies, followed by that school's current seed...

Duke - 9 (7 to win championship) ... #1 seed

Michigan State - 8 (2 to win championship) ... #10 seed

Kansas State - 5... #5 seed

Ohio State - 4... #1 seed

Pitt - 4... #1 seed

Gonzaga - 2 (1 to win championship) .. #11 seed

Florida - 2... Hilarious and inexplicable #2 seed

Syracuse - 2... #3 seed

Kansas - 2 (Bilas and Fraschilla)... #1 seed

Villanova - 1... #9 seed

Illinois - 1 (Between this and Gonzaga, not Gottlieb's finest moment)... #9 seed

 

If you're watching and reading ESPN this week, I'd caution you against following any expert picks.