The Pi-Rate Ratings

January 17, 2023

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Tuesday, January 17, 2023

HomeVisitorSpread
Air ForceWyoming2.5
Ball St.Western Michigan10.9
BelmontMurray St.4.9
Boise St.Nevada5.5
BuffaloBowling Green5.3
ButlerCreighton-4.0
Central MichiganAkron-7.6
DaytonDavidson11.1
Eastern MichiganKent St.-15.6
Georgia TechNorth Carolina St.-5.6
Iowa St.Texas1.3
Kansas St.Kansas-2.1
KentuckyGeorgia9.0
Miami (O)Northern Illinois3.8
Mississippi St.Tennessee-8.1
New MexicoSan Jose St.11.4
North CarolinaBoston College17.5
Notre DameFlorida St.4.9
RichmondRhode Island8.8
South CarolinaMississippi-6.7
Southern IllinoisEvansville17.7
Texas TechBaylor-0.5
ToledoOhio6.2
TulaneHouston-10.8
Utah St.UNLV7.0
ValparaisoIllinois Chicago1.8
VanderbiltAlabama-10.8
VCUMassachusetts7.0
Wake ForestClemson0.8
WisconsinPenn St.1.2

January 2, 2023

PiRate Ratings Bracketology

Date1/2/2023
SeedTeamTeamTeamTeamTeamTeam
1PurdueHoustonConnecticutKansas
2TennesseeArizonaAlabamaUCLA
3TexasVirginiaGonzagaArkansas
4DukeBaylorIndianaWest Virginia
5Ohio St.Miami (Fla.)XavierWisconsin
6AuburnKentuckyNorth CarolinaIowa St.
7San Diego St.Virginia TechIllinoisMississippi St.
8MarylandMarquetteSaint Mary’sMissouri
9New MexicoMemphisTCUKansas St.
10CreightonTexas TechUtahFlorida Atlantic
11Penn St.Utah St.OklahomaMichigan St.RutgersArizona St.
12CharlestonKent St.IonaDayton
13James MadisonIndiana St.UC-IrvineOral Roberts
14UMass LowellLibertyPrincetonColgate
15Utah ValleyUNC GreensboroNorthern KentuckyEastern Washington
16LongwoodSIU EdwardsvilleGramblingTexas A&M CCNorfolk St.St. Francis PA

Last Four Byes: Texas Tech, Utah, Penn St., Utah St.

Last Four In: Oklahoma, Michigan St., Rutgers, Arizona St.

First Four Out: Oklahoma St., Iowa, UAB, North Carolina St.

Next Four Out: Providence, Wake Forest, Northwestern, LSU

October 6, 2022

PiRate Picks — October 6, 2022

After coming back down to Earth last week with a 2-5 record against the spread, our seasonal record now stands at 18-10. That’s still abnormally high. Let’s hope we can get back on the winning side this week with seven selections, hoping to go 4-3 and be happy with a profit.

About 18 other games came within a point or two of being playable for us in our in-house method of picking games either against the spread, the total, or in creating a money line parlay where the odds are +120 or higher, preferably higher than +130 or +140.

Here are this week’s selections. Remember: We never wager real money on our selections, and we suggest you follow this lead.

Selection #1: Alabama and Texas A&M Over 51 1/2

First, we expect Bryce Young to be ready for this game, and he will only need a half or so of time he will be needed, as Alabama exacts some revenge against the Aggies. We chose to take the Over here, because ‘Bama could cover the total by themselves. We aren’t saying that a 52-0 game is in the offing, but 41-14 would be realistic.

Selection #2: Georgia Southern and Georgia St. Under 67 1/2

Both of these teams can put points on the scoreboard and score 35 points against a defense the caliber of their opponent this week, but this heated rivalry game is liable to have added defensive stops. Thus, we think the total is a little too high. We think this game could be 31-28, as high as 35-28, and we still win at 35-31. As long as this game doesn’t go to overtime, we think this is our top play of the week.

Selection #3: Army and Wake Forest Under 66 1/2

Our thinking here is that Army will try to reduce this game to a minimum of plays, and Wake Forest is coming off consecutive big games. Army’s offense isn’t assessing the real estate like it has in recent years, so scoring 20 points is not automatic, as they could only manage 14 against a weaker Georgia State defense last week. Wake Forest gave up 25 points to a Vanderbilt team that is somewhat comparable offensively to Army’s offensive abilities, and the Demon Deacons put up a strong defensive effort last week. We see this game as a 35-14, and 45-21 still wins this one.

Selection #4: Arkansas + 9 1/2 vs. Mississippi State

It is not in our DNA to play an underdog at 9 1/2 points, as 10 1/2 gives us so much better odds for the money. And, we know that teams that play Alabama frequently show the effects of the pasting they received in the next game.

Our internal game projection makes this spread playable for us, as we see this as almost a tossup and only give the Bulldogs the edge due to home field advantage. We don’t see State winning by more than a touchdown, if they win at all.

Selection #5: Money Line Parlay at +144.92

Notre Dame over BYU

Utah over UCLA

We wanted to find a way to get the Utes into our selections this week, and this appears to be the best possible play. After dropping the opener to Florida, the Utes have begun to look like the class of the Pac-12. As for the Notre Dame-BYU game, it is our belief that Notre Dame’s game with Marshall was a wake up call for the Irish. Looking at how close they came to winning at Ohio State compared to how the Buckeyes have fared since, we believe Notre Dame is sitting on their best game of the year this week. This is a neutral site game in Las Vegas, and it could be one of the more exciting TV games. But, we think the outcome is not all that much in doubt.

Selection #6: Money Line Parlay at +148.05

Nevada over Colorado St.

Tulane over East Carolina

These two games are simply a matter of our thinking that the ML is too low for the favorites, and thus, it gives us an inflated potential payout for playing the two favorites.

Money Line Parlay at +202.93

Oklahoma St. over Texas Tech

Kentucky over South Carolina

North Carolina St. over Florida St.

Similar to the #6 selection, our beliefs that these three favorites will win, while not as strong as the two-gamer above, still remains strong enough to make it playable at better than 2-1 odds.

August 16, 2022

Atlantic Coast Conference Preview

With all the rumored movement of teams from one conference to another, for now the Atlantic Coast Conference appears to be on solid ground. The league’s Grant of Rights deal with its members make it quite difficult, if not impossible for teams to exit the league. Under this deal, any team would have to forfeit all media revenue earned in another conference back to the ACC. An exit fee of $100 million or more would make leaving the ACC for the SEC or Big Ten financially unwise.

Of course, there are always loopholes that can be discovered by crafty legal departments, so impossible is not in the college football vocabulary. Impossible was a word associated with the words “beating Clemson” until last year. The Tigers failed to win the Atlantic Division for the first time 2014. Wake Forest was the surprise winner in the Atlantic, while Pittsburgh won the Coastal Division title. Wake Forest figured to be a contender for the division title again this year until last week, their starting quarterback, Sam Hartman, was ruled out indefinitely due to a non-football issue that required a surgical procedure. Hartman might return late in the season, but his loss will hit the Demon Deacons hard enough to take them out of the conference championship picture.

2022 will be the final year of divisional play in this league. Here are the preseason PiRate Ratings for the league.

ACC Preseason PiRate Ratings

Atlantic Division
TeamPiRateMeanBiasAverage
Clemson119.7119.5120.5119.9
NC State118.3117.3118.5118.0
Wake Forest113.9113.2113.2113.4
Florida St.111.7111.0110.9111.2
Louisville111.7110.5110.7110.9
Syracuse106.4104.8104.7105.3
Boston College100.5102.5100.2101.1
Coastal Division
TeamPiRateMeanBiasAverage
Pittsburgh115.9114.6114.2114.9
Miami (Fla.)115.1113.7114.9114.6
North Carolina108.0108.2107.5107.9
Virginia104.0104.2102.3103.5
Virginia Tech100.9101.398.4100.2
Georgia Tech95.695.593.694.9
Duke84.286.781.184.0
ACC107.6107.3106.5107.1

Preseason Official ACC Media Poll

Votes
#Atlantic1st PlaceOverall
1Clemson1111080
2North Carolina St.44959
3Wake Forest6783
4Louisville0591
5Florida St.2509
6Boston College1469
7Syracuse0201
#Coastal1st PlaceOverall
1Miami981036
2Pittsburgh38911
3North Carolina18823
4Virginia6667
5Virginia Tech3592
6Georgia Tech1343
7Duke0220
ChampionshipOverall
Clemson103
North Carolina St.38
Miami8
Wake Forest4
Pittsburgh3
Virginia3
Florida St.2
North Carolina2
Boston College1
Poll Taken Prior To Hartman’s Non-Football Medical Condition

The PiRate Ratings are designed to look at just the next week’s schedule of games and not to use to look forward. Nevertheless, here are the predicted won-loss records for the league.

Predicted Won-Loss Records

AtlanticConf.Overall
Clemson8-012-1
North Carolina St.7-111-1
Louisville5-38-4
Wake Forest4-48-4
Florida St.4-47-5
Syracuse2-64-8
Boston College1-74-8
CoastalConf.Overall
Miami7-110-3
Pittsburgh7-111-1
Virginia Tech4-48-4
North Carolina4-47-5
Virginia2-65-7
Georgia Tech1-72-10
Duke0-82-10

Clemson picked to win ACC Championship Game

January 1, 2022

PiRate Ratings–College Basketball Spreads

Saturday, January 1, 2022

HomeVisitorsSpread
TexasWest Virginia6.6
Wichita St.Memphis-1.7
South FloridaEast Carolina-0.3
MarquetteCreighton1.6
Iowa St.Baylor-8.5
Seton HallVillanova-0.1
DePaulProvidence-0.2
North Carolina St.Florida St.-4.5
UNLVSan Diego St.-4.1
Fresno St.Air Force16.0
KansasGeorge Mason20.0
RutgersCentral Connecticut20.5
Miami (Fla.)Wake Forest-0.6
SyracuseVirginia3.8
CincinnatiTulane10.2
Saint Mary’sSan Francisco2.2
OklahomaKansas St.8.0
NevadaNew Mexico11.1
OregonUtah5.2

February 26, 2021

PiRate Ratings College Basketball Spreads

Friday, February 26, 2021

HomeVisitorSpread
St. BonaventureGeorge Washington15.2
Saint LouisRichmond2.2
CincinnatiTulane5.3
StetsonNorth Florida4.6
Kennesaw St.Florida Gulf Coast-7.7
Northern ArizonaSouthern Utah-7.2
IdahoMontana St.-13.0
Penn St.Purdue0.3
Cal PolyUC Davis-7.1
UC IrvineUC San Diego9.8
Cal St. BakersfieldCal St. Northridge10.8
UC RiversideUCSB-2.3
HawaiiLong Beach State7.3
James MadisonDrexel1.9
MarshallNorth Texas3.5
Old DominionMiddle Tennessee9.6
UTSAUAB-3.9
Louisiana TechRice9.1
Southern MissFlorida Atlantic-0.2
SienaManhattan10.7
Saint Peter’sRider10.5
AkronBowling Green4.1
BradleyDrake-7.0
EvansvilleMissouri St.-7.2
ValparaisoIndiana St.-3.6
Loyola (Chi.)Southern Illinois21.3
Illinois St.Northern Iowa1.4
Utah St.Nevada6.8
UNLVFresno St.4.8
Central ConnecticutWagner-9.5
BryantLong Island University8.2
MerrimackSt. Francis (NY)2.8
Sacred HeartFairleigh Dickinson0.9
Texas St.UL Monroe10.1
Georgia SouthernAppalachian St.-0.9
UT ArlingtonArkansas St.2.1
TroyCoastal Carolina-5.6
Little RockLouisiana0.1
South AlabamaGeorgia St.-1.9
DenverOmaha-1.6
South Dakota St.UM Kansas City8.7
Utah ValleyUT Rio Grande Valley1.1
TarletonNew Mexico St.-6.4
SeattleGrand Canyon-6.5

Coming Later Friday: Updated Bracketology. There was considerable movement in the field of 68 since our Monday update. Teams like Duke, Michigan St., and North Carolina St. are making late pushes to sneak into the field. The first conference tournament began last night, and more tourneys will commence in the next few days, as March Madness lite begins Monday.

The PiRates will be heading down to the galley to make a big bowl of stew and start crunching the numbers that will become Bracketnomics 2021. The recipe has changed–for the Bracketnomics, not the stew.

April 6, 2020

The Greatest NCAA Tournament That Never Was–National Championship Game

1974 North Carolina St. Wolf Pack

vs.

1968 UCLA Bruins

 

How They Got Here

 

North Carolina St.

Defeated 1999 Duke  94-72

Defeated 1980 Louisville 96-82

Defeated 1978 Kentucky 82-70

Defeated 2019 Virginia 75-64

Defeated 2018 Villanova 97-75

 

UCLA

Defeated 1973 Providence  91-70

Defeated 1962 Cincinnati 75-59

Defeated 2015 Duke  83-57

Defeated 1968 Houston 99-92

Defeated 1972 UCLA  95-92

The Starting Lineups For Tonight’s Championship Game

 

North Carolina St. Wolf Pack

Center–Tom Burleson  7-2  Sr.  from Newland, North Carolina

Forward–Tim Stoddard 6-7 Jr. from East Chicago, Indiana

Forward–David Thompson 6-4 Jr. from Shelby, North Carolina

Guard–Moe Rivers  6-1 Jr. from  Brooklyn, New York

Guard–Monte Towe  5-7 Jr.  from Converse, Indiana

The Wolf Pack are coached by Norm Sloan

 

UCLA Bruins

Center–Kareem Abdul-Jabbar  7-2  Jr. from New York, New York

Forward–Mike Lynn 6-7 Sr. from Covina, California

Forward–Lynn Shackelford  6-5 Jr. from Burbank, California

Guard–Lucius Allen 6-2 Jr. from Kansas City, Kansas

Guard–Michael Warren  5-11 Sr. from South Bend, Indiana

The Bruins are coached by John Wooden

 

And Your Winner is: UCLA

 

1968 UCLA

104

1974 North Carolina St.

77

Boxscore

1968 UCLA

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

C

13

20

0

0

4

6

6

14

20

3

0

7

3

3

30

Mike Lynn

F

4

10

0

0

1

2

2

12

14

1

2

2

1

4

9

Lynn Shackleford

F

4

11

0

2

2

2

1

6

7

2

1

0

2

3

10

Lucius Allen

G

7

16

3

9

3

5

0

3

3

5

3

0

2

2

20

Mike Warren

G

8

18

3

7

3

4

0

2

2

4

2

0

4

2

22

Jim Nielsen

1

2

0

0

0

0

1

2

3

1

0

1

0

2

2

Kenny Heitz

2

5

1

3

2

2

0

1

1

3

2

0

1

0

7

Bill Sweek

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

Gene Sutherland

1

2

0

1

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

0

1

1

2

Neville Saner

1

2

0

0

0

0

1

3

4

0

0

0

1

1

2

Team

3

Totals

41

87

7

22

15

21

11

44

58

20

11

10

15

19

104

 

 

 

North Carolina St.

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Tom Burleson

C

4

9

0

0

1

2

1

6

7

4

0

2

2

4

9

Tim Stoddard

F

5

14

0

0

0

0

2

8

10

0

0

0

4

5

10

David Thompson

F

7

17

3

8

4

5

2

10

12

3

2

1

5

3

21

Mo Rivers

G

3

11

2

7

2

3

1

4

5

2

1

0

3

1

10

Monte Towe

G

3

10

2

7

4

4

0

2

2

3

1

0

5

2

12

Phil Spence

2

4

0

0

1

2

1

3

4

0

0

0

1

3

5

Mark Moeller

2

5

1

3

2

4

0

1

1

0

0

0

1

1

7

Greg Hawkins

1

3

1

3

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

2

0

3

Steve Nuce

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

2

2

0

0

0

0

1

0

Dwight Johnson

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Team

4

Totals

27

76

9

29

14

20

7

36

47

13

5

3

23

20

77

Player of the Game

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

 

Score By Halves

Team

1

2

Final

UCLA

50

54

104

N.C. State

38

39

77

 

This concludes the Greatest NCAA Tournament That Was Never Played.  Our Congratulations go to the 1968 UCLA Bruins, the best college basketball team in the last 60 years, at least according to the tabletop basketball strategy board game.

 

The PiRates are now headed out to sea to find some remote Pacific Island until August.  Hopefully, there will be a college  and NFL football season that start as scheduled.  If not, we will have alternate programming when we return to land.

April 4, 2020

The Greatest NCAA Tournament That Never Was–Final Four Saturday

It is hard to believe that this would be the day of the National Semifinals of the Final Four in Atlanta.  Somehow, it feels like the end of the college basketball season was several months ago.  Thursday, March 12, 2020, was the day that a Big East Conference Tournament game between Creighton and St. John’s played the first half and went to the locker rooms never to be seen again, well at least not to finish the game at Madison Square Garden.

In the 23 days since, so much has happened globally that all cancelled sports seem to be just a speck of dust in the importance of every day life.  Most of us are now on house arrest for a crime that somebody else committed.  The punishment for violating this arrest could be death, to us or somebody we care about.  Basketball, and all other sports, doesn’t really seem to matter that much.

We thought about suspending this tournament, as it would be apropos.  We even thought about turning this entire site into a “how to grow a quick vegetable garden” with the most nutrient dense foods you can grow in your yard or patio.  But, we figured that if you have suddenly changed careers to small farmer, you probably already have done hours of research; the majority of you reading this site are analytical in nature.  That’s the perfect general description, and analytical people, like all of us on the PiRate ship, study and study and study before undertaking new endeavors.

Truth be told, our Captain, and his lady have been “farming” for 40 years.  The real reason this conclusion to this simulation almost didn’t happen was that the Captain was busy planting kale, collards, kohlrabi, lettuce, radishes, and several other early Spring crops in the ground while the monsoonal rains took a short hiatus.  These two games were just played early this morning, so the results are delayed being uploaded.

If this is your first time to this site, what you see here is a tabletop board game simulation of the Greatest Teams in College Basketball between 1960 and 2019.  We put them in a standard 68-team tournament just like the current March Madness.  All teams in this tournament received 3-point shooting ratings, even if they played in an era without the 3-point shot.  Outside shooting range was used to estimate the percentage of made shots and frequency taken of players from pre-1987.  For example, had we made a 1966 Kentucky Wildcats team, Louie Dampier’s 3-point shooting percentage would have been about 48%, and his frequency of 3-point shot attempts to 2-point shot attempts would have been about 40% to 60%.

What type of board game was used for this simulation?  The Captain is a wizard at code-breaking.  As early as the late 1960’s, he was buying tabletop games like Strat-o-Matic Baseball and cracking the codes and making his own teams.

In the late 1970’s, The Avalon Hill Company put out a new game called, “Statis-Pro Basketball.”  This was an NBA strategy game, and the Captain, now in college, quickly cracked the codes that rated the players. Soon, he began making college basketball teams.  It wasn’t so easy then to do this, because the Internet did not exist, and there were no periodicals that printed the statistics of the players.  He had to spend hours in a large university library looking at microfilmed old copies of multiple newspapers to get the stats he needed.  It wasn’t 100% accurate, as he had to do a lot of estimating, but it was close enough.

When the Internet brought sites like Sports-reference to peoples’ desktop computers, the Captain spend a lot of his hard-earned money on printing cartridges and created his own printed depository of statistics.  He was able to modify the ratings on all the players that played college basketball and were represented in his team cards, and the game became more accurate.

So, that’s where we are today.  There are four teams remaining,  Here are our Final Four participants.

 

East Region Champion: 1974 North Carolina State Wolf Pack

South Region Champion: 2018 Villanova Wildcats

Midwest Region Champion: 1968 UCLA Bruins

West Region Champion: 1972 UCLA Bruins

 

Note: You see two different shades of pale blue for UCLA above.  Between 1968 and 1972, the Bruins slightly darkened this blue color.

 

Here are the results of the Final Four Games:

 

Tiny Towe Towers over ‘Nova

 

1974 North Carolina St.

97

2018 Villanova

75

 

Monte Towe scored 20 points along with 8 assists and 6 steals, as the 1974 national champion Wolf Pack pulled away from the 2018 national champions in the second half.  Leading 60-56, North Carolina State scored 11 consecutive points to open a 71-56 lead.  Villanova never cut the lead to single digits, and after the Wildcats began to foul, NC State extended the lead past 20 points by connecting on 14 of their final 16 foul shots.

 

Boxscore

North Carolina St.

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Tom Burleson

C

7

13

0

0

4

6

3

6

9

1

0

4

4

3

18

Tim Stoddard

F

6

10

0

0

3

4

2

8

10

0

1

1

2

1

15

David Thompson

F

7

14

2

5

5

7

3

5

8

2

2

2

3

2

21

Mo Rivers

G

4

11

2

7

3

5

1

3

4

3

2

0

1

3

13

Monte Towe

G

5

9

3

6

7

9

0

2

2

8

6

0

2

1

20

Phil Spence

1

2

0

0

2

2

1

3

4

1

0

0

0

3

4

Mark Moeller

1

3

0

1

1

2

0

2

2

2

0

0

1

1

3

Steve Nuce

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

1

0

1

1

0

Greg Hawkins

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

3

Team

4

Totals

32

64

8

20

25

35

10

30

44

18

12

7

14

15

97

 

 

 

Villanova

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Omari Spellman

C

2

5

1

3

1

2

2

5

7

0

0

2

4

5

6

Eric Paschall

F

5

14

1

4

0

0

2

3

5

2

0

0

3

5

11

Michael Bridges

F

5

11

2

5

2

3

2

7

9

3

2

0

5

4

14

Phil Booth

G

4

11

2

7

4

5

1

4

5

3

1

0

1

4

14

Jalen Brunson

G

4

10

2

6

3

4

0

3

3

4

1

0

5

3

13

Donte DiVincenzo

4

8

2

5

2

2

0

2

2

1

1

0

2

2

12

Collin Gillespie

2

5

1

3

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

0

1

5

5

Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

Tim Delaney

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

1

0

0

2

0

Jermaine Samuels

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

Team

3

Totals

26

65

11

33

12

16

8

26

37

13

6

2

21

32

75

Player of the Game

Monte Towe

 

Score By Halves

Team

1

2

Final

N. C. State

51

46

97

Villanova

44

31

75

 

68 Bruins Kareem 72 Bruins

 

1968 UCLA

95

1972 UCLA

92

 

In a game that had more comebacks than Frank Sinatra, the 1968 UCLA Bruins took the lead late and kept it over their four year later counterpart.  The game was fast-paced and exciting with neither team enjoying a lead of more than eight points.

In the first half, the 1972 Bruins took an early 9-4 lead on baskets by Greg Lee and Larry Farmer.  The 1968 squad staged a comeback following a Lucius Allen made three-pointer, and then after a block by Kareem Abdul Jabbar on a shot attempt by Jamaal Wilkes, Mike Warren retrieved the rebound and found Mike Lynn open for a basket.  Lynn was fouled and made the foul shot to tie the game at 9-9.

The remainder of the first half was close with the lead changing hands six times.  On the last possession of the half, 1972’s Tommy Curtis sunk a three-point shot at the buzzer (the last card in the deck), as the 72’s took a 49-46 lead into the locker.

The 1968 Bruins grabbed the lead at 59-58, and then the 1972 team went on a 10-2 run to take a 68-61 lead, their biggest lead of the day.  At that point, the 1968 team, not noted for pressing like many other John Wooden-coached teams, decided to press full court, and they forced the 1972 Bruins into 6 turnovers in the next 9 possessions.  This allowed the 1968 team to make a 14-3 run to take a 75-71 lead.

The 1972 team was not done.  The 1968 team went cold at this point and missed five consecutive shots.  Bill Walton rebounded four of these missed shots, and the 1972 Bruins’ fast break produced eight points off the misses.  The 1972 team ran off 10 consecutive points to go ahead 81-75.

At this point, the 1968 team decided to sink or swim with its big star, the hero that won three national championship in three years in real life.  Jabbar took the 1968 team’s next five shots, hitting four, while the 1972 team committed three turnovers.  The 1972 Bruins enjoyed a 13-4 run to go ahead 88-85, and they held on to the lead for the remainder of the game.

 

Boxscore

1968 UCLA

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

C

8

15

0

0

4

7

5

14

19

1

1

5

2

3

20

Mike Lynn

F

6

13

1

2

3

4

1

8

9

2

3

0

5

2

16

Lynn Shackleford

F

4

11

1

4

2

2

0

5

5

0

2

0

4

4

11

Lucius Allen

G

6

14

2

5

3

5

1

4

5

5

4

0

3

4

17

Mike Warren

G

6

14

3

7

5

6

0

2

2

6

2

0

2

1

20

Jim Nielsen

2

5

0

0

0

0

2

4

6

1

0

1

2

3

4

Kenny Heitz

3

8

1

3

0

0

1

2

3

2

1

0

3

4

7

Team

3

Totals

35

80

8

21

17

24

10

39

52

17

13

6

21

21

95

1972 UCLA

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Bill Walton

C

7

13

0

0

3

5

4

11

15

3

2

3

4

5

17

Jamaal Wilkes

F

5

11

2

5

3

4

3

9

12

1

1

1

2

3

15

Larry Farmer

F

4

9

1

3

0

0

1

5

6

0

0

0

6

2

9

Greg Lee

G

4

14

2

8

4

5

1

4

5

2

3

0

3

2

14

Henry Bibby

G

5

12

2

6

5

6

0

3

3

4

2

0

5

3

17

Tommy Curtis

4

11

2

7

3

4

0

1

1

3

2

0

2

2

13

Larry Hollyfield

2

5

1

3

0

0

1

2

3

2

1

0

2

3

5

Swen Nater

1

2

0

0

0

0

1

2

3

0

0

1

1

2

2

Team

3

Totals

32

77

10

32

18

24

11

37

51

15

11

5

25

22

92

Player of the Game

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

 

Score By Halves

Team

1

2

Final

1968 UCLA

46

49

95

1972 UCLA

49

43

92

 

National Championship Game Monday Night

 

1974 North Carolina State Wolf Pack vs. 1968 UCLA Bruins

 

 

March 28, 2020

The Greatest NCAA Tournament That Never Was–Elite 8 Saturday

We are down to the Elite 8, and after today’s East and South Regional Finals, there will be six teams left in the field.  We’re just 24 hours away from knowing which of these best teams of all time (1960-2019) will make the Final Four.

If you haven’t been following this simulation since its beginning, we took 68 of the best NCAA basketball teams between 1960 and 2019.  No school could have teams from consecutive seasons, or else this would have been the UCLA Invitational.

The games were simulated by actually playing the college made version of Statis-Pro Basketball, a game made by Avalon Hill and Sports Illustrated between the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Our Captain solved the codes for that game and applied them to college.

Here are the results for the East and South Region Championships.

 

EAST REGION

 

Wolf Pack Dominates On Boards/Towe Magnificent

 

1974 North Carolina St.

75

2019 Virginia

64

In it’s first three games in this tournament, Virginia had been able to limit turnovers and force the opponent into bad shots.  In the Elite 8, the Cavaliers committed just seven turnovers, but they could not prevent North Carolina State from getting open shots.  Thanks to point guard Monte Towe’s excellent passing, the Wolf Pack shooters were open more often than a normal UVa opponent.

Towe dished out 10 assists in the game, five in both halves.  Towe also contributed 22  points, hitting all eight of his foul shots in the second half when North Carolina State increased their lead from five to 11 points.

Boxscore

North Carolina St.

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Tom Burleson

C

8

13

0

0

4

6

4

6

10

0

0

3

2

2

20

Tim Stoddard

F

2

5

0

0

2

3

1

7

8

1

0

1

1

2

6

David Thompson

F

5

11

1

3

6

8

3

7

10

2

1

2

2

2

17

Mo Rivers

G

2

7

1

4

1

2

0

3

3

1

1

0

2

3

6

Monte Towe

G

5

12

4

9

8

9

0

1

1

10

2

0

3

0

22

Phil Spence

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

2

2

0

0

1

0

1

2

Greg Hawkins

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

2

3

0

0

0

1

0

0

Steve Nuce

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

2

2

Mark Moeller

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

Team

3

Totals

24

52

6

16

21

28

9

30

39

14

4

7

11

13

75

 

 

 

Virginia

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Mamadi Diakete

C

1

3

0

0

0

0

2

2

4

0

0

1

0

5

2

De’Andre Hunter

F

2

7

0

3

3

4

1

4

5

1

0

0

2

4

7

Ty Jerome

F

5

12

2

6

3

4

0

4

4

6

1

0

2

5

15

Kyle Guy

G

6

14

3

8

3

3

0

4

4

2

0

0

1

4

18

Kihei Clark

G

2

5

1

2

0

0

0

1

1

3

1

0

1

3

5

Braxton Key

5

9

1

2

1

2

1

4

5

0

1

0

1

2

12

Jack Salt

2

5

0

0

1

2

0

3

3

1

0

0

0

2

5

Jay Huff

0

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

Team

2

Totals

23

57

7

22

11

15

4

22

28

13

3

1

7

26

64

Player of the Game

Monte Towe

Score By Halves

Team

1

2

Final

N. C. State

34

41

75

Virginia

31

33

64

 

 

WEST REGION

 

Brunson and Bridges Bring Back The Wildcats

 

2018 Villanova

75

1970 UCLA

69

 

Trailing by six points eight minutes into the final half, Villanova’s Jalen Brunson and Michael Bridges scored a combined 19 points to bring the Wildcats back into the lead at 68-67 with less than two minutes remaining.  Foul shooting and multiple missed three point shots sent the Bruins back to Westwood.

 

Boxscore

Villanova

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Omari Spellman

C

0

2

0

1

0

0

2

4

6

0

0

1

1

5

0

Eric Paschall

F

2

5

1

3

6

6

1

5

6

0

0

2

0

2

11

Michael Bridges

F

7

12

3

5

5

5

1

7

8

0

0

0

2

1

22

Phil Booth

G

2

4

2

3

4

6

0

2

2

3

1

1

2

2

10

Jalen Brunson

G

7

17

3

5

6

8

0

1

1

6

2

0

2

3

23

Donte DiVincenzo

2

6

1

4

2

3

0

2

2

3

1

0

3

1

7

Collin Gillespie

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree

1

4

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

1

0

0

1

2

Team

3

Totals

21

50

10

21

23

28

4

22

29

12

5

4

10

15

75

 

 

 

UCLA

Start

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

PTS

Steve Patterson

C

5

11

0

0

2

2

2

7

9

1

0

1

2

4

12

Sidney Wicks

F

7

15

0

2

3

5

4

8

12

3

1

2

5

4

17

Curtis Rowe

F

6

12

1

3

2

3

2

8

10

1

2

0

2

4

15

John Vallely

G

4

8

2

6

3

4

0

2

2

5

1

0

3

3

13

Henry Bibby

G

4

10

2

7

2

2

1

1

2

2

1

0

2

4

12

John Ecker

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

Jon Chapman

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

Bill Seibert

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

Team

3

Totals

26

56

5

18

12

16

9

26

38

12

5

3

15

26

69

Player of the Game

Jalen Brunson

 

 

Score By Halves

Team

1

2

Final

Villanova

40

35

75

UCLA

41

28

69

 

Coming Tomorrow: The Midwest and West Region Finals

 

Midwest Region Championship: 1968 UCLA vs. 1968 Houston

West Region Championship: 1972 UCLA vs. 1982 North Carolina

 

March 9, 2020

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For March 9, 2020

Date

3/9/2020

Seed

Team

Team

Team

Team

Team

Team

1

Kansas

Gonzaga

Dayton

Baylor

2

San Diego St.

Florida St.

Villanova

Creighton

3

Duke

Kentucky

Seton Hall

Maryland

4

Michigan St.

Louisville

Oregon

Wisconsin

5

Ohio St.

Auburn

Butler

BYU

6

West Virginia

Iowa

Penn St.

Illinois

7

Virginia

Colorado

Michigan

Arizona

8

Houston

Providence

LSU

Florida

9

Saint Mary’s

USC

Marquette

Oklahoma

10

Arizona St.

Rutgers

Texas Tech

UTAH ST.

11

East Tennessee St.

Indiana

Stanford

Xavier

Cincinnati

12

Yale

Stephen F. Austin

LIBERTY

Richmond

Wichita St.

13

Vermont

Akron

North Texas

New Mexico St.

14

BRADLEY

BELMONT

Hofstra

Colgate

15

UC-Irvine

Wright St.

Little Rock

E.  Washington

16

North Dakota St.

WINTHROP

Siena

Prairie View

St. Francis (PA)

N. Carolina A&T

Teams in all CAPS have earned automatic bids

 

The Bubble

 

Last Four BYES: Rutgers, Texas Tech, Indiana, and Stanford

Last Four IN: Xavier, Cincinnati, Richmond, and Wichita St.

 

First Four OUT: UCLA, Texas, North Carolina St., and Mississippi St.

Next Four OUT: Rhode Island, Northern Iowa, Arkansas, and Memphis

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