If these past two years have taught me anything about sports, it’s that when I underestimate a team, it always exceeds expectations.
Take, for example, the 2015-16 North Carolina men’s basketball team. Behind seniors Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson, UNC had steamrolled past its first three NCAA Tournament opponents. I thought the Tar Heels were done for in the Elite Eight, though.
The Notre Dame team that awaited them was stacked with talent: Demetrius Jackson, Zach Auguste, a young and flourishing Bonzie Colson. I was convinced North Carolina’s season would end against the Fighting Irish.
It was quite the contrary, obviously. UNC won comfortably and ended up a Kris Jenkins 3-pointer away from the national championship. And of course I made the same mistake a year later, picking Kentucky over North Carolina in all of my brackets in the 2017 tourney.
Instead, a Luke Maye jumper sent UNC on its way to the ultimate story of redemption in Glendale, Ariz.
The trend even holds at a personal level. As a senior, I was part of a red-hot rec league team that won six games in a row leading up to the championship. We wrote off our opponent, and it completely backfired. We lost by double digits. I went 2-8 on free throws, and a ninth grader blocked the hell of out me.
That loss stung as I ate Cook Out chicken quesadillas a few hours later, and it still does now. To Kevin, Davis, Brooks and the rest of the guys on that team: we should’ve had it.
So when I look at this North Carolina team — the No. 6 seed in the ACC Tournament with 2/5 of the All-ACC First Team on its roster — I think to myself: why not overestimate?
