Villanova 2018 Nudges Louisville 2013 to Start 2-0 in Simulation; Syracuse 2003 Leads ACC

Carmelo Anthony (22 ppg) led Syracuse 2003 to a buzzer beater win over Duke and 1st place in my simulated "ACC" replay but Villanova's 2018 Mikal Bridges (28.5, 8.0 rebound) has been even better as Nova nudged Louisville 2013 to take first in the Big East.

Obviously it is only a 2-game sample and while I believe the player cards in the free game are now very accurate, dice lead to the same variations as you see in real games. In fact, in the first two games of my SEC play, Kentucky 2012, Florida 2006 and Auburn 2019 are all 2-0, but using the same player card for Sidarius Thornwell (who we still have nightmares about from the South Carolina tournament game a few years ago) scored 33 points against VCU after being held to 7 by Florida. Partly that is the result of tougher defensive match-ups, but part is just the dice from game to game - and likewise as awesome as Marquette fans saw both Bridges and 2002 Cincinnati great Steve Logan are, they will not keep their current 28.5 and 26.0 points per game over the course of several games.

With the disclaimer that it is only two games, here are Big East leaders in four categories followed by the stats for all Marquette players who played enough to have a card, followed by the standings and box scores from the seven games played so far.

Big East Scoring leaders (2 games)	Pts	Reb	Stl	Block
Bridges, Villanova 2018	28.5	8.0	0.0	2.0
Logan, Cincinnati 2002	26.0	2.5	1.5	0.0
Gordon, Connecticut 2004	23.5	2.0	1.0	0.5
Green, Georgetown 2007	21.5	5.0	1.5	2.0
Smith, Louisville 2013	19.5	5.0	2.5	1.0
Big East Rebound leaders (2 games)	Pts	Reb	Stl	Block
Okafor, Connecticut 2004	17.5	16.5	1.5	0.5
Dieng, Louisville 2013	7.0	10.0	0.0	0.5
Hibbert, Georgetown 2007	11.0	9.5	0.0	5.0
Bridges, Villanova 2018	28.5	8.0	0.0	2.0
Spellman, Villanova 2018	10.0	7.5	2.0	0.0
Davis, Cincinnati 2002	4.5	7.5	1.5	0.0
Big East Steals leaders (2 games)	Pts	Reb	Stl	Block
Siva, Louisville 2013	19.0	1.5	4.5	0.0
Wade, Marquette 2003	14.5	6.0	3.5	0.5
McElroy, Cincinnati 2002	10.5	3.0	3.5	0.5
Brown T, Connecticut 2004	2.5	1.5	3.5	0.5
Brunson, Villanova 2018	15.5	0.0	3.5	0.5
Big East Blocks leaders (2 games)	Pts	Reb	Stl	Block
Hibbert, Georgetown 2007	11.0	9.5	0.0	5.0
Williams, Connecticut 2004	1.5	0.0	1.0	2.5
Bridges, Villanova 2018	28.5	8.0	0.0	2.0
Green, Georgetown 2007	21.5	5.0	1.5	2.0
Boone, Connecticut 2004	5.5	5.0	0.0	2.0
Other Marquette 2003	Pts	Reb	Stl	Block
Jackson, Marquette 2003	15.5	6.0	0.0	0.0
Diener, Marquette 2003	14.5	2.5	1.0	0.0
Novak, Marquette 2003	5.5	4.0	0.0	0.0
Townsend, Marquette 2003	4.0	1.0	1.5	1.0
Merritt, Marquette 2003	3.8	4.0	0.0	0.0
Chapman, Marquette 2003	3.5	0.0	0.0	0.0
Grimm, Marquette 2003	2.5	1.5	0.0	0.0
Bradley, Marquette 2003	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

Here are the standings. After the 6-game round robin the tie breaker will be point differential and teh top two make my tournament, but 2nd place team must win two play-in games (like being in the round of 32 to start) while the champ goes right to the Elite 8. I would say Marquette's road is a little uphill due to a very weak defense and the fact that they have not played and of the three defending national champs, but as we all know from 2003 MU's fire power gives them a shot even against a No. 1. This is the same setup for my Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC, but because the addition of Syracuse 2003 gives the ACC five national champs, I am giving them the two extra spots for their 3rd and 4th place team in the preliminary round of my tournament.

Just updated the standings after McDermott scored another 32 points against UConn to up his mark to a national best 31.5 ppg, but UConn dominated 86-61 to move into second place due to a 12-point average margin of victory.

Big East (past & present)	W	L	Pts	PtsAll	Pt Dif
Villanova 2018	2	0	83	67	16.0
Connecticut 2004	2	1	73	61	12.0
Marquette 2003	2	1	73	73	0.0
Louisville 2013	1	1	74	69	5.0
Georgetown 2007	1	1	76	71	5.0
Cincinnati 2002	1	1	71	75	-4.0
Creighton	0	2	72	85	-13.0
Butler 2010	0	2	54	80	-26.0

Finally these box scores would be a little more neat of I did not include the info to the left, but it is helpful when others play the game. It shows the position at which I play each player and which of the last 44 possessions I have them on the court when playing the game. For example, Steve Novak has the best three-point card and the best free throw card of all players on all 42 teams, but the card shows he can play 14 of the last 44 possessions, so I play him at the end in possessions 14-1 (1 is the final). Todd Townsend is actually the workhorse, so he plays from the 1st possession (44) down to when Novak enters (so "44-15"). Here are the instructions of you want to try any matchups yourself, and it links to cards for all 353 teams from 2019 if anyone is curious about current.

		Villanova 2018			77
		Louisville 2013			73
G-F	Poss	Villanova 2018	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	41-1	Brunson	13	0	4	1
2	37-1	DiVincenzo	18	1	4	1
3	35-1	Paschall	3	1	3	0
4	42-1	Bridges	31	5	0	1
5	35-1	Spellman	6	5	0	0
		Bench
			0	0	0	0
			0	0	0	0
1	44-42	Gillespie	3	0	0	0
2,3,4	44-38,37-28,27-25	Booth	3	2	0	0
5	44-36	Cosby-Roundtree	0	2	0	0
		Total	77	16	11	3
G-F	Poss	Louisville 2013	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	40-1	Siva	25	2	6	0
2	44-41,34-1	Smith	15	7	3	1
3	38-35,31-1	Hancock	17	4	1	0
4	31-1	Dieng	3	9	0	1
5	30-1	Behanan	4	5	0	0
		Bench
			0	0	0	0
1,2,3	44-41, 40,35, 34-32	Ware	0	2	0	2
3	44-39	Van Treese	3	0	0	0
4.3	44-32,31-24	Blackshear	0	4	0	0
5	44-31	Harrell	6	2	0	0
		Total	73	35	10	4
		Connecticut 2004			71
		Butler 2010			47
G-F	Poss	Connecticut 2004	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	39-1	Brown T	5	2	6	1
2	all	Gordon	23	2	0	1
3	30-1	Brown D	0	4	0	0
4	24-1	Boone	5	5	0	4
5	38-1	Okafor	19	12	3	1
		Bench
1	44-40	Williams	3	0	0	5
3	44-31	Villanueva	5	2	0	2
4	44-25	Anderson	8	4	0	0
5	44-40	Armstrong	3	7	0	0
5	39 - s	Tooles	0	1	0	0
		Total	71	39	9	14
G-F	Poss	Butler 2010	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	44-39,34-1	Mack	7	0	0	1
2	38-1	Nored	7	4	4	0
3	39-1	Veasley	14	3	1	0
4	31-1	Howard	12	2	0	0
5	43-1	Hayward	7	5	1	0
		Bench
2,1			0	0	0	0
3	44-39,38-35	Vanzant	0	0	2	0
4	44-40	Butcher	0	0	0	0
4	44-32	Hahn	0	1	0	0
5	44	Jukes	0	1	0	0
		Total	47	16	8	1
		Cincinnati 2002			79
		Georgetown 2007			77
G-F	Poss	Cincinnati 2002	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	all	Logan	27	1	3	0
2	39-1	McElroy	18	3	0	1
3	44-30,20-1	Davis	6	4	3	0
4	35-1	Stokes	6	7	0	0
5	29-1	Little	10	6	0	0
		Bench
			0	0	0	0
			0	0	0	0
2	44-40	Barker	0	1	0	0
4	44-36	Williams	7	2	0	0
5,3	44-30, 29-1	Maxiell	5	6	2	2
		Total	79	30	8	3
G-F	Poss	Georgetown 2007	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	42-1	Wallace	12	4	0	0
2	44-43, 41-1	Sapp	13	1	1	0
3	all	Green	13	5	0	0
4	32-1	Summers	23	2	1	0
5	32-1	Hibbert	12	8	0	4
		Bench
			0	0	0	0
1,2	44-43, 42	Macklin	0	0	0	0
4	44-33	Ewing	0	2	0	2
4	44-38	Rivers	0	1	0	0
5	37-33	Egerson	4	1	0	0
		Total	77	24	2	6
		Marquette 2003			73
		Cincinnati 2002			62
G-F	Poss	Marquette 2003	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	all	Diener	22	4	1	0
2	42-1	Wade	11	6	6	1
3	14-1	Novak	8	5	0	0
4	37-1	Merritt	12	11	0	0
5	36-1	Jackson	7	9	0	0
		Bench
1			0	0	0	0
4,5	44-43	Chapman	0	0	0	0
4	44-15	Townsend	8	1	3	2
5	44-38,37	Merritt	0	2	0	0
5	44-38	Grimm	5	2	0	0
		Total	73	40	10	3
G-F	Poss	Cincinnati 2002	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	all	Logan	25	4	0	0
2	39-1	McElroy	3	3	7	0
3	44-30,20-1	Davis	3	11	0	0
4	35-1	Stokes	11	4	1	0
5	29-1	Little	3	8	1	3
		Bench
			0	0	0	0
			0	0	0	0
2	44-40	Barker	0	1	0	0
4	44-36	Williams	4	1	0	0
5,3	44-30, 29-1	Maxiell	13	4	0	0
		Total	62	36	9	3
		Marquette 2003			62
		Georgetown 2007			74
G-F	Poss	Marquette 2003	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	all	Diener	7	1	1	0
2	42-1	Wade	18	6	1	0
3	14-1	Novak	3	3	0	0
4	37-1	Merritt	3	2	0	0
5	36-1	Jackson	24	3	0	0
		Bench
1			0	0	0	0
4,5	44-43	Chapman	7	0	0	0
4	44-15	Townsend	0	1	0	0
5	44-38,37	Merritt	0	1	0	0
5	44-38	Grimm	0	1	0	0
		Total	62	18	2	0
G-F	Poss	Georgetown 2007	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	42-1	Wallace	16	5	0	0
2	44-43, 41-1	Sapp	7	1	3	0
3	all	Green	30	5	3	4
4	32-1	Summers	3	4	0	0
5	32-1	Hibbert	10	11	0	6
		Bench
			0	3	0	0
1,2	44-43, 42	Macklin	3	6	0	2
4	44-33	Ewing	0	1	0	0
4	44-38	Rivers	3	1	0	0
5	37-33	Egerson	3	1	0	0
		Total	75	38	6	12
		Villanova 2018			89
		Butler 2010			60
G-F	Poss	Villanova 2018	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	41-1	Brunson	18	0	3	0
2	37-1	DiVincenzo	13	4	0	0
3	35-1	Paschall	14	3	0	0
4	42-1	Bridges	26	11	0	3
5	35-1	Spellman	14	10	4	0
		Bench
			0	0	0	0
			0	0	0	0
1	44-42	Gillespie	0	0	0	0
2,3,4	44-38,37-28,27-25	Booth	0	1	3	0
5	44-36	Cosby-Roundtree	4	1	0	0
		Total	89	30	10	3
G-F	Poss	Butler 2010	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	44-39,34-1	Mack	8	5	0	0
2	38-1	Nored	17	1	1	1
3	39-1	Veasley	3	3	0	0
4	31-1	Howard	20	8	0	0
5	43-1	Hayward	12	5	0	1
		Bench
2,1			0	0	0	0
3	44-39,38-35	Vanzant	0	2	2	0
4	44-40	Butcher	0	0	0	0
4	44-32	Hahn	0	1	0	0
5	44	Jukes	0	1	0	0
		Total	60	26	3	2
		Connecticut 2004			61
		Louisville 2013			74
G-F	Poss	Connecticut 2004	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	39-1	Brown T	0	1	1	0
2	all	Gordon	24	2	2	0
3	30-1	Brown D	3	4	1	0
4	24-1	Boone	6	5	0	0
5	38-1	Okafor	16	21	0	0
		Bench
1	44-40	Williams	0	0	2	0
3	44-31	Villanueva	0	0	0	0
4	44-25	Anderson	12	1	3	0
5	44-40	Armstrong	0	1	2	0
5	39 - s	Tooles	0	1	0	0
		Total	61	36	11	0
G-F	Poss	Louisville 2013	Pts	Reb	Stls	Blks
1	40-1	Siva	13	1	3	0
2	44-41,34-1	Smith	24	3	2	1
3	38-35,31-1	Hancock	17	6	3	0
4	31-1	Dieng	11	11	0	0
5	30-1	Behanan	4	3	1	1
		Bench
			0	0	0	0
1,2,3	44-41, 40,35, 34-32	Ware	0	0	2	0
3	44-39	Van Treese	0	1	2	0
4.3	44-32,31-24	Blackshear	4	1	2	0
5	44-31	Harrell	1	3	2	0
		Total	74	29	17	2

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