Revisiting a Prediction

[StillAWarrior]

On March 27, 2021, I decided to make a prediction in response to this:

We just hired the Big 12’s Steve wojocjoezski.

When I made the prediction, I was definitely caught up in the excitement of a hire that was better than I had expected. I was feeling really optimistic about Shaka and where he might take the program. I acknowledged in the original post that it was probably overly optimistic and I almost stopped myself from posting it a couple of times. Here is the prediction I made (with progress notes in red). It's still a work in progress -- and maybe MU and Shaka won't accomplish everything I predicted -- but I like how things have started.

What the hell...this may age badly, but I’ll give it a shot.

I predict that five years from today, the following will be true:

• MU will have finished in the top half of the Big East at least four times. (Two down, two to go. So far, 5th and 1st)
• MU will have finished top three in the Big East at least twice. (One down, one to go)
• MU will have played in the BET semi finals at least twice. (One down, one to go)
• MU will have played in the BET finals at least once. (Check)
• MU will have qualified for the NCAA tournament at least three times. (Two down, one to go)
• MU will have won at least three NCAA games. (One down, two to go)
• MU will have been at least a four seed. (Check)
• MU will have been ranked in at least two seasons. (Check)
• Most fans will be really happy with Shaka as our coach. ("Most?" I think yes.
• The post quoted above will have aged worse than this post. (So far, so good)

Overly optimistic. Probably. But we’ve got this.

[MarquetteDano]

Not too shabby. Those were pretty bold at the time.

[StillAWarrior]

Not too shabby. Those were pretty bold at the time.

Honestly, my thought process is re-posting this is less about getting credit and more about reminding everyone that things are trending in the right direction. The loss on Sunday was disappointing. But over the last two years this team is exceeding even predictions that I considered embarrassingly optimistic. This season was absolutely fantastic and reason to really appreciate and celebrate all that the team has done. The two seasons together are really strong start to Shaka's time at Marquette. There's still work to do and it's natural to be bummed out about the early exit from the tournament, but there is still reason to be optimistic.