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Closest to the Pin Round 18: Notre Dame

Update: February 18 (Game Results)With the Cat’s 70-74 collapse to Notre Dame, we congratulate eight VUHoops readers who took medals in this round. Gold Medals: Bill’77 (70-67), Colt (64-73), Dom (74-71), and TopGere (63-74),earning 5.0 points each; Silver Medal: marty1029 (62-74), earning 3.0 points; Bronze Medals: chuck st. petersburg (61-74), Gorms (67-68), and TK87 (64-71),earning 1.0 point each. Our updated leader board is provided below.

VUHoops vs. Vegas: Based on the average predicted scores of the VUHoops Crowd and the posted Vegas line, we would have had a DOUBLE WIN by picking ‘Notre Dame -2.5 points (WIN) and the Over (WIN). The details follow. With the double-loss, we get back to even for the season.

VU Hoops Vegas Bet Actual Result
Spread ‘Nova +5.0 ‘Nova +2.5 ‘ND -2.5 ND by 4 WIN
Over 135.0 133.0 Over 144 WIN

Leader Board

Reader Points
Scott0220 17.5
Clarkkell 15.5
TK87 15.0
Dom 14.5
FruitLoops 13.0
jtc123 13.0
marty1029 11.0
Jim89 10.5
Bri'13 9.5
BZ34 9.5
Bill'77 9.0
schitzengigles10 8.5
Bill '62 8.0
Loser Cruiser 7.0
NovaCat94 6.5
barry class of 57 6.0
Top Gere 6.0
Colt 5.0
Kait'08 5.0
marc 5.0
DP5 4.5
bhank 4.0
chuck st.petersburg 3.5
Steph 3.5
Stevie V 3.5
FLM'33 3.0
Justin 3.0
Old School 3.0
Pretty Toney 3.0
regred 3.0
Robertrise 3.0
Southoftheborder 3.0
Beardog 2.5
Bstep011 2.5
Nervous Nelly 2.5
novamsu 2.5
Gorms 2.0
Jimmy 2.0
JDW71 1.5
JMac726 1.5
Johnnyb1 1.5
Rick19 1.5
stats 1.5
TimW 1.5
Ed'77 1.0
LouBevi 1.0
NovaFlyer 1.0
StatsManOne 1.0
TC 1.0
Two in the Pinkston 1.0
Jimdribble 0.5

Update: February 18 (Game Time) A season-low 36 VUHoops readers posted predictions, with 22 (61%) picking the Cats to lose. As a group, the readers see ‘Nova losing by a 5.0 points, 64-71, implying an over/under of 135.0. The Vegas odds makers are picking ‘Nova to lose by 2.5 points and setting the over/under at 133.0 points, implying a final score of 65-68.

Scatter Plot of Predicted Scores

Window Opening: February 16, 9:00 PM … The window is now open for our readers to post their predicted final scores for Saturday night’s game against Notre Dame at Wells Fargo Center (9:00PM, ESPNU) in the 18th round of our Closest to the Pin Contest. Scott0220 remains alone in first place; click here to see our full leader board.

Villanova (11-14, 4-9) is unranked in the AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Polls but is ranked #87 by Kenpom.com. The Cats have a RPI of 101, a SOS of 7, and score an average of 72.7 PPG while giving up an average of 71.8 PPG.

Notre Dame (18-8, 10-3) is ranked #23 by AP and #38 by Kenpom.com. The Fighting Irish have an RPI of 33, a SOS of 36, and are scoring an average of 68.0 PPG while giving up an average of 61.9 PPG. The table below sets out their Big East wins and losses so far this season.

Opponent RPI AP H/A W/L ND Opponent
Pittsburgh 73 22 Home Win 72 59
Cincinnati 92 - Away Loss 55 71
Louisville 22 11 Away Win 67 65
South Florida 57 - Home Win 60 49
Connecticut 20 17 Home Loss 53 67
Rutgers 150 - Away Loss 58 65
Syracuse 1 1 Home Win 67 58
Seton Hall 30 - Away Win 55 42
Connecticut 20 24 Away Win 50 48
Marquette 11 15 Home Win 76 59
West Virginia 35 - Away Win 55 51
DePaul 181 - Home Win 84 76
Rutgers 150 - Home Win 71 53

Be sure to read our game preview tomorrow. Good luck!

Special Note: When posting predictions, be sure to:

  • Use a consistent handle / ID 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.
  • List your predicted score for Villanova first, followed by the score for the opponent (e.g., Cats 100, Irish 75)