Closest to the Pin Round 22: Marquette
Update: Saturday, February 2 (Game Results). With the Cat’s 75-70 victory over Marquette, we congratulate eleven VU Hoops readers who took medals in this game. Bulls-eyes: Barney Rubble (75-70) and NovaFlyer (75-70), earning 10.0 points each; Silver Medals: chuck st. petersburg (75-69), Mouph Man (75-71) and Two in the Pinkston (75-69), earning 3.0 points each; and Bronze Medals: dom (77-70), Kait’08 (77-70), mj (74-71), Muhley (76-71), pttam7yanks (74-69) and Steph (75-68),  earning 1.0 points each. Our updated leader board is provided below.
VUHoops vs. Vegas: Placing two rational bets based on the average predicted scores of the VUHoops Crowd vs. the posted Vegas line and total points, we would have won $200 on this game. The details follow. We are now +$1,000 for the season.
| VU Hoops | Vegas | Bet | Result | |
| Point Spread | ‘Nova -5 | ‘Nova -6 | Marquette +6 | WIN |
| Total Points | 147.0 | 149.5 | Under | WIN |
Leader Board After 22 Rounds
| Reader | Points |
| BarneyRubble | 16.0 |
| Beardog | 15.5 |
| Pat’12 | 15.0 |
| chuck st.petersburg | 14.5 |
| Hugh Jass | 13.5 |
| Joe | 13.5 |
| TC’87 | 13.5 |
| regred | 13.0 |
| novafan95 | 12.5 |
| Joey | 10.5 |
| Nervous Nelly | 10.5 |
| NovaFlyer | 10.0 |
| Palsgraf | 10.0 |
| Robertrise | 10.0 |
| Mouph Man | 9.5 |
| TK87 | 9.5 |
| mj | 9.0 |
| Two in the Pinkston | 8.0 |
| NovaCat94 | 7.5 |
| Dj pizzle | 7.0 |
| mfc4293 | 7.0 |
| REPRESENT804 | 7.0 |
| friartownmayor | 6.5 |
| Kittlesfan95 | 6.5 |
| Steph | 6.5 |
| hit the bid | 6.0 |
| Pena Power | 6.0 |
| mattymo | 5.5 |
| Kait’08 | 5.0 |
| marty1029 | 5.0 |
| Old School | 5.0 |
| SeanDon | 5.0 |
| gaparch | 4.5 |
| Stevie V | 4.5 |
| Andy’06 | 4.0 |
| Colt | 4.0 |
| Ed’08 | 4.0 |
| doctor feelgoodes | 3.5 |
| Jimmy | 3.5 |
| Arctic Cat | 3.0 |
| Bill ’77 | 3.0 |
| CJ | 3.0 |
| Mark Anderson | 3.0 |
| miles’88 | 3.0 |
| Novachamps22 | 3.0 |
| Schitzengigles | 3.0 |
| Simple’07 | 3.0 |
| Tommyboy | 3.0 |
| cdtoffers | 2.5 |
| super nova | 2.5 |
| Clarkkell | 2.0 |
| David ’06 | 2.0 |
| DMC | 2.0 |
| pttam7yanks | 2.0 |
| Bri’13 | 1.5 |
| CMM | 1.5 |
| DP5 | 1.5 |
| EG’77 | 1.5 |
| Esto | 1.5 |
| FLM’33 | 1.5 |
| Mark A | 1.5 |
| mprams | 1.5 |
| Pete (Aliti 13) | 1.5 |
| Chicken Dinner | 1.0 |
| dom | 1.0 |
| Johnnyb1 | 1.0 |
| Loser Cruiser | 1.0 |
| Lou ’06 | 1.0 |
| Matt | 1.0 |
| Muhley | 1.0 |
| Rich’09 | 1.0 |
| Vinny’06 | 1.0 |
| bgunn | 0.5 |
| Brendan ’10 | 0.5 |
| Christopher Coggins | 0.5 |
| David | 0.5 |
| FishersTalent13 | 0.5 |
Update: Wednesday, February 2 (Game Time). A total of 67 VUHoops readers posted predictions, four picking the Golden Eagles to win. As a group, the readers see ‘Nova winning by a score of 76-71 (a margin of 5.0 points and implied over/under of 147). The Vegas odds makers also are picking ’Nova to win by 6.0 points and set the over/under at 149.5  points, implying a final score of 78.72. KenPom.com’s model is predicting Nova to win by 7.0 points by a score of 79-72.
Scatter Plot of Predicted Scores
Window Opening: Monday, January 31 (9:00 PM). The window is now open for readers to post their predicted final scores for ‘Nova’s game vs. Marquette on Wednesday at 7:00 PM (Pavilion / ESPNU) in our Closest to the Pin Contest. After twenty-one rounds, Beardog has taken the lead with 15.5 points. Click here to see our full leader board. In our VUHoops vs. Vegas competition, VUHoops is up $800.
The #12 Cats (17-4, 5-3) have an RPI of 10, a SOS of 36 and are scoring an average of 76.0 PPG while giving up an average of 63.8 PPG. The Golden Eagles (14-8, 5-4) are unranked, have an RPI of 58, a SOS of 28, and score an average of 79.8 PPG while allowing an average of 68.8 PPG.
Marquette’s Big East wins have come against West Virginia (+5), Rutgers (+8), Notre Dame (+22), DePaul (+30) and Syracuse (+6).  Their Big East losses have come against Pittsburgh (-8), Louisville (-1), Notre Dame (-5) and Connecticut (-8). More statistical information about Marquette is available at Statsheet.com.
Be sure to check out Brian’s game preview.
Special Note: When posting predictions, please be sure to:
- List your predicted score for Villanova first, followed by the score for the opponent (e.g., Cats 100, Friars 75)
- All future games (except Rivalry Games), points are awarded to winners as follows: Bulls-eye = 10 points; Gold (non-bulls-eye) =5 pts; Silver = 3pts; Bronze = 1pt.
- Note the following rule change: given the extraordinary number of readers participating in the contest, we can no longer enforce our rule prohibiting duplicate score predictions.
- 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 guests or anonymous readers cannot be accepted.
