Game Projections - 12/17/08

Big East
Canisius 56 Syracuse 82 (Syracuse won by 22)
Jackson State 64 Providence 79 (Providence won by 14)
Liberty 76 DePaul 75 (Liberty lost by 1)
Siena 65 Pittsburgh 80 (Pittsburgh won by 13)

AP Top 25
UNC-Asheville 56 Duke 82 (Duke won by 43)
Citadel 62 Michigan State 81 (Michigan State won by 14)
Jacksonville 50 Ohio State 64 (Ohio State won by 13)
Arkansas-Little Rock 69 Memphis 81 (Memphis won by 8)
Loyola Marymount 46 UCLA 73 (UCLA won by 31)

Picks of the Day (overall 3-3, 50.0% accuracy)
Ohio +6 @ Marshall
Arkansas-Little Rock +21 @ Memphis
Loyola Marymount +30.5 @ UCLA
East Carolina +9.5 @ NC State
Jacksonville State +11 @ UAB
UNLV -14 vs. Santa Clara

Tennessee-Marquette & Andy Katz Upset Specials

Tennessee and Marquette are currently tied at 32-32 at halftime. According to my preliminary PPI calculations, Tennessee will win this game by 7 by the score of 85-78 (update 12:22 AM: Tennessee won 80-68). This means that the scoring must pick up significantly in the second half, and already there have been 5 points scored in 23 seconds, so we hope these teams believe in the PPI!

Andy Katz of ESPN had 3 upset specials for the week at halftime of the Tennessee-Marquette game. Let's review 'em:

1) East Carolina @ NC State (Wednesday) - The PPI projects NC State will win by 6; however, these 2 teams are 3 percentage points different in the rankings. Very feasible.

2) Oakland @ Michigan (Saturday) - We are not so sure about this one. Michigan is projected to win by 11. After beating Duke in Ann Arbor, we expect Michigan to win this game at Auburn Hills.

3) Miami (OH) @ West Virginia (Saturday) - We actually have Miami (OH) as the better team, but project WVU to win by 3 points. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, West Virginia is very injured and this game is officially then a toss-up.

Andy - two out of three ain't bad. We expect #3 to happen in PPI Land and we believe #1 is entirely possible.

PPI RANKINGS 12/14/08 - Back from hiatus

There were lots of movement in the rankings this week. On Saturday, there is a huge doubleheader between #3 Xavier against #6 Duke (2 PM CBS), followed by #5 Gonzaga against #14 UConn. Also, Louisville (#37) and Georgetown (#28) hit the "other receiving votes" category for the first time, and we believe at the PPI that these rankings will only go up. The biggest mover into the Top 25 was #17 Creighton (up from #41) and the biggest drop out of the Top 25 was Memphis (who dropped from #17 to #32). Here are the rankings after Sunday's games


#1 North Carolina
#2 Oklahoma
#3 Xavier
#4 Pittsburgh
#5 Gonzaga
#6 Duke
#7 Syracuse
#8 Texas
#9 Clemson
#10 Wake Forest
#11 Arizona State
#12 Villanova
#13 Missouri
#14 Connecticut
#15 Illinois
#16 Brigham Young
#17 Creighton
#18 Butler
#19 Miami (OH)
#20 Dayton
#21 Tennessee
#22 California
#23 Wisconsin
#24 West Virginia
#25 Niagara
Others receiving votes: Davidson, Baylor, Georgetown, Texas A&M, Illinois State, UNLV, Memphis, Boston College, Florida State, Saint Mary's, Ohio State, Louisville, Arizona, Minnesota, Illinois-Chicago