UPDATE — Game Results: With the Cat’s winning 74-72, three VUH readers took medals. Gold Medal: Congratulations to Barney Rubble '87, who hit our second bulls-eye of the contest, picking the exact score and earning 10 points (including 5 bonus points for the bulls-eye). Silver Medal: Tom '87 (74-73), earning 3 pts. Bronze Medal: Eli (76-72), earning 1 pt. Select "read more" to see the names of the 31 readers on our Leader Board after nine rounds.
LEADER BOARD AFTER 9 ROUNDS
| Pete | 14 |
| Andy ’06 | 11 |
| Barney Rubble '87 | 10 |
| Jim K | 9 |
| Tom 87 | 9 |
| jm | 6 |
| MIKE | 6 |
| Old School | 6 |
| Ricky Williams | 6 |
| Wallace | 6 |
| Chad | 5 |
| Ed '77 | 5 |
| Kait '08 | 5 |
| Alex '09 | 3 |
| Chillcat | 3 |
| imisskylelowry | 3 |
| mj | 3 |
| NJ Super’Nova | 3 |
| Tony | 3 |
| Bill '77 | 2 |
| cdtoffers | 2 |
| Eli | 2 |
| Lou '06 | 2 |
| Ray '68 | 2 |
| Brendan D. | 1 |
| Chris | 1 |
| doctor feelgoode | 1 |
| EDM '09 | 1 |
| Paul '91 | 1 |
| Pena Power | 1 |
| Steph '76 | 1 |
Update: Saturday, Jan 2, 3:30 (Game time): In the voting so far, a total of 75 VUH readers posted picks (four predicting a Marquette victory). Collectively, the readers saw Nova winning 80-74 (a margin of 6 points and implied over/under of 154). The Vegas odds-makers favored 'Nova (-1) and called the over/under at 151.5 pts, or an implied score of 76-75. BossHog assumed his rightful place as outlier by predicting a 'Nova 102-40 win, which did not quite fit within the scale of my chart. The scatter chart depicting the readers predictions follows:
Window Opening: Thursday, Dec. 31, 8:30 AM. The window is now open for readers to post their predicted scores for Nova’s Big East opening game against Marquette in Round 9 of our Closest to the Pin Contest. After eight rounds, our leader board shows Pete in first place with 14 points, Andy ‘06 in second place with 11 points, and Jim K in third place with 9 points.
‘Nova (11-1) has scored an average of 84.5 points while holding their opponents to 68.2. Marquette (9-4) has scored an average of 77.4 points while giving up 60.8 points. Marquette’s more significant wins included Xavier (+10) and Michigan (+14). Their four losses were to Florida State (-1), NC State (-4), Wisconsin (-9) and West Virginia (-1). Villanova is ranked #8, has an RPI of 13 and an SOS of 118. Marquette is not ranked, has an RPI of 87 and an SOS of 133. We’ll post our game preview tomorrow and the Las Vegas spread / over-under on game day.