UPDATE — Game Results: With the Cat’s winning 78-76, eight VUH readers took medals. Gold Medals: Congratulations to Colt (79-75) and Lou ’06 (80-76), earning 5 points each; Silver Medals: supernova (81-76), ramon usategui (78-73) and chuck st. petersburg(79-74), earning 3 pts each; Bronze Medals: jimmy (80-74), Pete (78-72) and HoyaSaxa (76-74), earning 1 pt each. Select "read more" to see the names of the 40 readers now on our Leader Board after eleven rounds.
LEADERBOARD
| Reader | Points |
| Pete | 15 |
| Andy ’06 | 12 |
| Barney Rubble '87 | 10 |
| Jim K | 9 |
| Tom 87 | 9 |
| Lou '06 | 7 |
| jm | 6 |
| MIKE | 6 |
| Old School | 6 |
| Ricky Williams | 6 |
| Wallace | 6 |
| Chad | 5 |
| Colt | 5 |
| Ed '77 | 5 |
| Jim89 | 5 |
| Kait '08 | 5 |
| Alex '09 | 3 |
| Chillcat | 3 |
| chuck st.petersburg | 3 |
| imisskylelowry | 3 |
| mj | 3 |
| NJ Super’Nova | 3 |
| ramon usategui | 3 |
| supernova | 3 |
| tommyboy | 3 |
| Tony | 3 |
| Bill '77 | 2 |
| cdtoffers | 2 |
| Eli | 2 |
| Ray '68 | 2 |
| Brendan D. | 1 |
| Chris | 1 |
| doctor feelgoode | 1 |
| EDM '09 | 1 |
| HoyaSaxa | 1 |
| jimmy | 1 |
| mddcny | 1 |
| Paul '91 | 1 |
| Pena Power | 1 |
| Steph '76 | 1 |
Update: Saturday, Jan 9, 2:00 PM (Game Time): A total of 65 VUH readers posted picks (with only one predicting a Marquette victory). Collectively, the readers see Nova winning 81-73 (a margin of 8 points and implied over/under of 154). The Vegas odds-makers have edged a half-point closer to the VUHoops readers over the last few hours, now favoring the Cat's by -9 pts. while leaving the over/under unchanged at 152 pts, or an implied score of 81-72. The scatter chart depicting the VUH readers’ predictions is provided below.
Window Opening: Thursday, Jan. 7, 8:00 PM. The window is now open for readers to post their predicted scores for Saturday’s rematch against Marquette in our Closest to the Pin Contest. After ten rounds, our leader board has Pete in first place with 14 points, Andy ‘06 in second place with 12 points, and Barney Rubble ‘87 in third place with 10 points.
In their first game on January 2, ‘Nova prevailed at Marquette by a score of 74-72. This season, Villanova (13-1) has scored an average of 84.8 points while holding their opponents to 68.7. Marquette (10-5) has scored an average of 76.0 points while giving up 61.5 points. Marquette’s more significant wins include Xavier (+10), Michigan (+14), and Georgetown (+3). Their five losses were to Florida State (-1), NC State (-4), Wisconsin (-9), West Virginia (-1) and Villanova (-2). Villanova is ranked #6, has an RPI of 13 and an SOS of 111. Marquette is not ranked, has an RPI of 84 and an SOS of 70. We’ll post our game preview and the Las Vegas spread / over-under on game day.
NOTE: With VUHoops new commenting system, it is important for contestants to use a consistent handle/login so that we can keep an accurate running leader board over the course of the season. Obviously, score predictions posted by anonymous readers cannot be accepted.