{"id":259639,"date":"2010-02-01T12:34:49","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T17:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,yhoo:20050301:fantasy,article,yhoo-ept_sports_fantasy_experts-216876:1"},"modified":"2010-02-01T12:34:49","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T17:34:49","slug":"bracket-big-board-same-nightmare-to-plague-villanova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/259639","title":{"rendered":"Bracket Big Board: Same nightmare to plague Villanova"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bracket Big Board takes into consideration past returns,
\ncurrent performance and expected future gains in determining who should
\nbe included among the field of 65 (31 automatic and 34 at-large bids).
\nEssentially, the Bracket Big Board is a cheat sheet designed for
\namateur bracketologists if they were filling out a Tourney Pick ‘Em ’10<\/a> entry today. The Bracket Big Board is updated every
\nMonday\/Friday until the dance card is officially unveiled March 14.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, in a Pennsylvania
\ntradition dating back 124 years, a corpulent marmot, blessed with the
\nroundness of Rick Majerus and the meteorological foresight of Al Roker, will be yanked from its comfortable den to reveal a long-range forecast for stir crazy – or just
\nplain crazy – onlookers.  <\/p>\n

Tournament anxious Villanova fans in attendance are praying
\na blanket of clouds will envelope Punxsutawney.\n<\/p>\n

Off to its best start in its 90-year history, the Big East pacesetter
\n– and its fans – can’t wait for March to arrive. Blemished only by a top-flight
\nTemple team back in early December, the Wildcats
\nhave raced out to a 19-1 start, beating the likes of Mississippi,
\nMaryland and Georgetown. In conference play, it
\nseems only Syracuse and West Virginia has a realistic shot of
\nchasing down Jay Wright’s unbeaten club.<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Nova’s success stems largely from an explosive four-guard
\nlineup. On the season, Scottie Reynolds and company have netted 1.21 points per
\npossession, the third-best mark in the nation. Though they lack interior size,
\nthe ‘Cats are an aggressive rebounding team evident in their top-25 offensive rebounding percentage. Mike Brey, whose mediocre Irish team
\nwas throttled 90-72 in Philly a week ago, summed up the Villanova offense best<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n

"If you’re going to beat them, you have to
\nreally score it. Because they’re going to score it. They really get down the
\nfloor."<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But the Wildcats, much like Punxsutawney Phil, are masters
\nin the art of deception. <\/p>\n

As KenPom<\/a> fanatics know, a team’s defensive efficiency is unequivocally
\nthe best predictor of tournament success. Simply put, in college basketball,
\nthe adage "defense wins championships" rings true. Over the past decade, no
\nsquad has reached the Final Four ranked outside the top 25 in D efficiency. Currently,
\nVillanova clocks in at a ghastly 69th<\/sup> nationally in that category. Opponents
\nhave converted numerous charity stripe opportunities and three-point rainbows against the Wildcats. <\/p>\n

Unquestionably, ‘Nova possesses the talent, toughness and
\nexperience to advance deep into the tournament. Reynolds and the two Coreys (Fisher
\nand Stokes, not jean tight-rollers Haim and Feldman<\/a>) have the firepower, particularly from distance, to carry this team.
\nBut due to their inefficiencies on the opposite end, every offensive
\nperformance must be spectacular. <\/p>\n

With away games at Georgetown
\nand West Virginia
\nupcoming, ‘Nova’s quest to earn its first ever No. 1 regular season ranking may likely fall by
\nthe wayside. Unless significant improvements are made, its chances of again
\nreaching the Mecca
\nof college hoops might too. <\/p>\n

Here are the movers and shakers in the first edition of this year’s Triple-B:<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/p>\n

*For games played through Sunday, Janurary 31
*RPI data provided by Rivals<\/a>
*Efficiency stats from kenpom.com<\/a>
<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the Bubble: <\/strong>Louisville (13-8), Wichita St. (19-4), Illinois (14-8), Tulsa (17-4), Seton Hall (12-7), Minnesota (13-8), Virginia (13-6), Arizona St. (15-7), South Carolnia (13-8), UTEP (15-5), San Diego St. (15-6)  <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dropped Out:<\/strong> None<\/p>\n

Conference Breakdown: <\/strong>American
\nEast (1), ACC (7), Atlantic Sun (1), Atlantic 10 (6), Big 12 (7), Big
\nEast (7), Big Sky (1), Big South (1), Big Ten (4), Big West (1),
\nColonial (1), Conference USA (1), Horizon (1), Ivy (1), Metro (1),
\nMid-American (1), Mid-Eastern (1), Missouri Valley (1), Mountain West
\n(3), Northeast (1), Ohio Valley (1), Pac-10 (1), Patriot (1), SEC (5),
\nSouthern (1), SWAC (1), Summit (1), Sun Belt (1), West Coast (2), WAC
\n(1) <\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of AP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bracket Big Board takes into consideration past returns, current performance and expected future gains in determining who should be included among the field of 65 (31 automatic and 34 at-large bids). Essentially, the Bracket Big Board is a cheat sheet designed for amateur bracketologists if they were filling out a Tourney Pick ‘Em ’10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}