The window is now open for readers to post their predicted scores against St. Joseph's in Round 5 of our Closest to the Pin Contest. Refer to our 2009-10 "Closest to the Pin" Contest post for contest rules and prizes. After four rounds, Pete is in first place with 13 points, followed by Andy ‘06 with 11 points and MIKE with 6 points.
So far this season, Nova has scored an average of 82.4 points while holding their opponents to 66.6 St. Joe’s has scored an average of 68.6 points, well less than the 73.7 scored by their opponents. The Cats are 8-0 while the Hawks are 3-4. St. Joe’s three wins have been against Drexel (+10), Holy Cross (+12) and Boston College (+4), while its four losses have come at the hands of #5 Purdue (-25), DePaul (-7), Rider (-8) and Cornell (-12). Villanova is ranked #3, has an RPI of 12 and an SOS of 114. St. Joe’s is not ranked, has an RPI of 78 and an SOS of 22. We’ll post our pregame review on Wednesday.
UPDATE: Wednesday 9:00 PM: A record 111 VUH readers posted picks in Round 5 (none predicting a St. Joe's victory). Collectively, the readers see Nova winning 84-67 (a winning margin of 17 points and implied over/under of 151). The Vegas odds-makers initially predicted a win by Nova by 13.5 pts; the spread increased over the day to 16.5 points; the over/under was 147. See below for our scatter chart depicting the 111 readers predictions.
