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Everyone was able to avoid a horrible miss on Monday by picking Wake to cruise over Nicholls State. As most of the readers will know, Wake cruised to a victory over a really bad Southland Conference team to the tune of 75-47. While we weren't perfect with our margins (most picked a slightly closer game), or the point totals (most picked Nicholls to score a BIT more than 47 points), not too many picks were drastically far off.
Jake held on to his lead, moving to 5-0 on the season and will likely be able to push his record to 7-0 by the end of the week as the next two games should not bring many surprises prediction-wise or on the basketball court. Meanwhile Chris picked a high scoring game against Nicholls and dropped a bit closer to me at the bottom of the leaderboard but nonetheless was able to retain his hold on seventh place. Let's check the standings out through five games:
Overall Leaderboard
1. Jake (5-0, 78 points); LW: 1
2. Griffin (4-1, 81 points); LW: 2
3. Shayn (4-1, 89 points); LW: 4
4. Matt (4-1, 94 points); LW: 3
5. Rob (4-1, 99 points); LW: 6
6. Riley (4-1, 103 points); LW: 5
7. Chris (3-2, 108 points); LW: 7
8. Bart (3-2, 110 points); LW: 8
Other Picks
KenPom (4-1, 82 points)
BSD Average (4-1, 87 points)
There were a couple of changes in the middle of the standings as Matt and Shayn switched for third and fourth and Riley dropped a spot to Rob - both on the basis of points garnered. Let's see the best and worst picks leaderboard after the Nicholls contest:
Best Pick Award
Jake (2)
Chris (1)
Shayn (2)
Griffin (1)
Worst Pick Award
Griffin (1)
Bart (1)
Rob (1)
Shayn (1)
Chris (1)
Chris had the worst pick for the last contest while Shayn and Griffin both missed the score by a total of 14 points. Matt is the only remaining person who has neither had the best or the worst pick for a single game. He's Even Steven and loving it.
Let's see what the staff thinks will happen tonight:
Riley: Wake 82-54
Rob: Wake 75-55
Jake: Wake 71-54
Bart: Wake 76-57
Chris: Wake 80-59
Matt: Wake 87-72
Griffin: Wake 78-55
Shayn: Wake 78-65
BSD Average: Wake 78-59
KenPom: Wake 70-59 (89% chance of Wake winning)
The BSD crew is a little more optimistic than KenPom is about how many points the Deacons will put up but it is largely based on how much time the walk ons and substitutes get to play if and when the game gets out of control.
The game thread will be open around 6-6:30 so drop by and chat about the game as you watch the Deacs on ESPN3. For those of you in Winston, the game tips at 7 P.M. at the Joel. As always, go Deacs!