With the Cat's 2013-14 season beginning to look like a lot of fun, we've decided to bring back an old VUHoops favorite, the Closest to the Pin Contest.
The contest covers all Big East regular season games plus the St. Joseph's (PA), Syracuse and Temple games. Simply put, contestants predict the final game score and the three coming closest in each game earn points toward the contest prize awarded at the end of the season. Points will be awarded in each game to the three contestants with the smallest absolute difference between their predicted scores and the actual scores without regard to whether the contestant correctly picked the winning team.
The contestant coming closest to the final score earns 5 points, second closest earns 3 points and third closest earns one point. If the player with the most accurate prediction picks the score exactly (i.e., a "Hole in One"), he or she earns a 5 additional point bonus (i.e., 10 points total). The contestant accumulating the most points over the course of the season will win bragging rights as the best prognosticator on VUHoops plus a $50 gift certificate to Fanatics.
GAME RESULTS ... With apologies to BosshogHazzard, my editorial colleague Kevin Pulsifer takes the prize for the understatement of the week with his comment, "Bosshog wasn't too far off in his guess for closest to the pin (VU 104 - St. Joe 37). I have it on good authority that even the Boss is surprised how easily the Cats won in the CYO gym on Hawk Hill.
Scatter Plot of Predicted Scores
With the Cats' convincing 98-68 victory in the Holy War, (yes, I said Holy War) we congratulate twelve VUHoops readers who earned points in this game.
|
Contestant |
Nova |
St. Joe's |
PTS |
|
Villanovafan152 |
84 |
68 |
5 |
|
speedracer33 |
88 |
64 |
5 |
|
jwscones |
83 |
67 |
3 |
|
NovaDave |
90 |
60 |
3 |
|
novAbrasion |
82 |
68 |
3 |
|
sjkqw |
83 |
69 |
3 |
|
Wildecat15 |
86 |
72 |
3 |
|
tk1434 |
81 |
68 |
1 |
|
novanation63 |
81 |
68 |
1 |
|
BrendanColliton |
82 |
69 |
1 |
|
Zachary Rahn |
77 |
69 |
1 |
|
Jack The Tripper |
83 |
70 |
1 |
VUHoops vs. Vegas: Based on the average predicted scores of the VUHoops Crowd and the posted Vegas line, we would have had a PUSH by betting ‘Nova -5 points (WIN) and betting the UNDER (LOSS).
UPDATE - GAME TIP-OFF (6:12 PM)
# Reader Predictions: 69
% Picking Cats to Win: 96%
Wisdom of VUHoops' Crowd Prediction:
o Spread: Villanova -12
o Over/Under: 144
o Final Score: Cats 78 - Hawks 66
Vegas Odds:
o Spread: Villanova -5
o Over/Under: 144.5
o Final Score: Cats 75- Hawks 70
Note: The final score prediction posted by BosshogHazzard (VU 104 - St. Joe 37) did not fit on the scatter plot graph. Wisdom of Crowds predictions posted above were normalized by excluding BosshogHazzard's irrational exuberance.
Window Opening (December 6, 8:00 AM): The window is now open for our readers to post their predicted final scores for Saturday's game at St. Joe's.Villanova (8-0) is ranked #14 in the AP Poll has an RPI of 7 and an SOS of 50. The Cats average 81.1 PPG while giving up an average of 64.6 PPG.
St. Joe's (4-3) is unranked in the AP Poll, has an RPI of 186 and an SOS of 247. The Hawks are scoring an average of 74.0 PPG while giving up an average of 71.6 PPG. Their wins have been against Vermont, Marist, Siena and Washington State, while their losses have come at the hands of Creighton, LSU and Temple.
Enter your predicted final score in the comments section in the format: Nova xx, St. Joe's yy. Good luck to you all!
