We just assumed it would be the Highlanders, not the Nuggets.
And here we are. The Highlanders are 0-8, just halfway through their season but already favoured to claim the wooden spoon for the first time since 1997.
The Nuggets, those perennial battlers who coincidentally have not had a winning season since the same year, are 3-0.
A colleague cracked a joke a few weeks back about the possibility of the Nuggets (season opener: April 20) getting their first win before the Highlanders (season opener: February 22). Strange business, sport.
It is, of course, early days. The Nuggets have had the luxury of playing the very weak Rangers twice, and much tougher games await.
But after 16 years of battling, Otago hoops fans should go ahead and get excited. The good times have come.
Rugby families
Any Game of Thrones nuts out there?
The Last Word is a big fan of both the remarkable George R. R. Martin books and the stunning television series.
After filling out one of those online quizzes to see which house I would represent - I'm a Stark! - and commissioning the ODT artist to do our sports liftout cover yesterday, another obvious idea popped into my head.
If Super 15 teams were houses in Thrones, which would they be?
Easier said than done. I loosely translated the Highlanders to the Starks (noble, honourable, seem to end up on the losing side), the Crusaders to the Lannisters (nasty, embarrassment of riches), the Bulls to the Dothraki (big, hairy, guttural) and the Force to the Greyjoys (from way out west).
Any other ideas, Thrones nuts?
Teaching coaches
Congratulations to Joe Schmidt, the Bay of Plenty man who was named coach of the Irish rugby team this week.
Audrey Malone, our club netball correspondent, points out Schmidt is a former teacher, just like former All Black coach Graham Henry, Lions coach Warren Gatland and Chiefs coach Dave Rennie.
She wonders if there is something in that, if the ability to build good relationships with pupils translates to the knack of getting the most out of rugby players.
Former All Black coach JJ Stewart and Lions coaching great Carwyn James were also educators. Alan Jones was a teacher for a while before coaching the Wallabies.
Why relegation . . .
Devoted Super rugby fans obviously feel there is enough drama in the 47-week season (or is it 48?) to keep them involved.
But events over the last week or so have firmed up my belief that two of the greatest elements of sport need to be part of this competition.
I speak of promotion-relegation, and of a draft.
British football fans (of lower clubs) know there is nothing quite so agonising as the pain of relegation, nor much that can equate to the ecstasy of promotion.
It was all there to see last weekend when Brentford played Doncaster, with automatic promotion to League One (third tier) on the line.
Doncaster needed a point, Brentford needed to win. Just seconds remained when Brentford was awarded a penalty. Game over, one would have thought.
But Marcello Trotta missed from the spot, the loose ball was quickly cleared, and James Coppinger tapped in a goal that sealed promotion for Doncaster. Incredible stuff.
At the same time, QPR - hilariously, given the money the club splashed on players - and Reading have had to stomach relegation from the Premier League. Barnet, with Dutch bulldog Edgar Davids as player-coach, has slipped out of League Two. AFC Wimbledon, the fan-owned club, miraculously avoided relegation.
Wonderful drama. And, while few of us would like to see the Highlanders slip out of the Super 15, wouldn't it provide incredible theatre if they were fighting for their survival over the next couple of months?
. . . and a draft . . .
The annual NFL draft provided another opportunity for draftaholics like myself to (a) take a day off to watch lots of ESPN, and (b) think again about how a New Zealand rugby draft might work.
In case you have missed any of the 637 references in this column over the years, a draft is held in each of the major American sports (the NFL and NBA drafts are the biggest).
It acts as a talent-leveller, with the general principle being that struggling teams get the highest picks, and a chance to rebuild with elite talent.
The system is proven - especially in a league like the NFL, which always has a different group of teams challenging for the Super Bowl.
It is also a phenomenal spectacle on live television, and provides fans and the media with thousands of feverish discussion points.
. . . must happen
So, I ask again: can we please have a draft in New Zealand rugby some day?
Talent levelling already happens, to a degree, among the five franchises. The New Zealand Rugby Union effectively has control, and it is technically in its interests to have all five teams doing well.
But a draft would make that process more transparent, and more exciting. And I have to believe Sky Sport would be into it.
I have a rough idea how it might work, but would be interested to get the thoughts of our readers.
Effectively, the ITM Cup and the New Zealand under-20 squad would equate to American college sport, so players shining at those levels would have to ''declare'' for the draft.
The draft would be held in about November, and franchises would pick in reverse order of where they finished in that year's Super 15 - so the Highlanders would get the No 1 pick next year.
Ten rounds would be about right. Drafted players would get contracts based on the round in which they were drafted.
Draft picks could be traded between teams, so the Highlanders might offer the Crusaders their fifth, sixth and seventh round picks in exchange for the Crusaders' first-round pick, allowing the Highlanders to take two of the best five prospects.
Is it wrong that this is the most excited I've been about Super rugby all year?
That sweet feeling
A Highlander has finally won a game!
We are told injured winger Buxton Popoali'i is a dab hand at table tennis, and he won his first singles game while playing for the Cale Metro B grade team on Monday night.
More on Mussolini
Reader James Dignan passes on another titbit relating to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his links to rugby (see last week's column).
Il Duce apparently loved rugby, rebranding it as ''palla ovale'' - oval ball - and claiming it was descended from a traditional Roman sport.
''So, if it wasn't for Mussolini, the All Blacks' first ever World Cup opponents would probably not have been Italy,'' James suggests.
Rocco style
Veteran golfer Rocco Mediate didn't muck around when he was running late for a press conference on the Champions Tour recently.
Mediate rode shotgun in a cart driven by his caddie, and was taken straight from the course into the clubhouse, past the reporters and to the door of the interview room.
''Well, they say we can take the golf carts anywhere,'' Mediate said.
Birthday of the week
Wolfgang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips would have been 85 today.
The German driver was killed at the Italian Grand Prix in 1961, when his car became airborne and crashed, also killing 15 spectators.
