UPDATE -- Game Results: With the Cat's taking their first loss of the season against Temple, 65-75, at least the good guys won something with five VUH readers winning medals. Gold Medal: Old School (69-70), earning 5 points. Silver Medal: Alex '09 (68-67), earning 3 pts. Bronze Medals: Three readers tied, earning 1 pt. each — Paul '91 (64-63), Bill '77 (75-72) and Tom '87 (74-71). Select "read more" to see the leader board after six rounds.
The window is now open for readers to post their predicted scores against Temple in Round 6 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 14 points, followed by Andy ‘06 with 11 points and MIKE with 6 points.
So far this season, 'Nova (9-0) has scored an average of 84.0 points while holding their opponents to 69.1 Temple (7-2) has scored an average of 61.6 points vs. 52.9 points scored by their opponents. Temple’s more significant wins include Siena (+4), Virginia Tech (+11), Western Michigan (+6), and Penn State (+3). The Owl’s two losses have come at the hands of Big East teams, Georgetown (-1) and St. John’s (-7). Villanova is ranked #3, has an RPI of 9 and an SOS of 123. Temple is not ranked, has an RPI of 18 and an SOS of 48. We’ll post our pregame review and Las Vegas spread / over-under on Saturday.
Update: Sunday, 3:00 PM: So far, 102 VUH readers posted picks in Round 6 (one predicting a Temple victory). Collectively, the readers see Nova winning 81-69 (a winning margin of 12 points and implied over/under of 150). The Vegas odds-makers are picking a low scoring game with 'Nova winning. The spread has widened since this morning from -3 to -4 while the over/under also has grown from 133 this morning to 137. Be sure to read Mike's preview of the Temple game. Click "Read More" to view our scatter chart depicting the predictions made so far. By the way, MainLineMike's pick of 'Nova 125-35 did not quite fit on the chart.
