I love Dick Vitale. First he's one of my favorite announcers because he's so wildlly enthusiastic about a sport I love. Second, his work on the V Foundation should be a model for every successful person who has the public's attention. Third, Dickie V don't care what you think – he'll act the fool at any time and any place and he packs more fun into his days than any of us.
I love the guy. So I named this Cup after him. In his honor it's named mostly after point No. 3 – his ability to poke fun at himself. So the Cup goes to whichever national writer or site most inaccurately predicts the top 25 in the pre-season.
So now, just when I think I can't be impressed any more by Mr. Vitale (dude is constantly tweeting pictures of himself with his arm wrapped about some hot young thing), Dickie V goes and takes over the Vitale Cup standings, with only one week to go!
Clearly, I'm an amateur.
If you've missed the previous updates the idea is simple: points are awarded for correctly placing top 25 teams in the preseason. Bonus points are awarded depending on how accurate within the standings those predictions were. Points are deducted for incorrect guesses, and further points are deducted for completely sucking. The low score wins (this ain't golf, or it would be called the Andy Katz Cup and the Cup would be adorned with a picture of Katz washing Mark Few's Titleists).
Got it? Good.
The major change this week was Oregon getting knocked out of the polls, and Creighton slipping back in. Creighton wasn't anyone I wanted to see, as Run the Floor was one of two contestants to leave them out of the bracket. Regardless, this is almost it. Only one more poll exists, and we'll have a winner a week from today. Good luck.
| Points | |
| Dick Vitale | 14 |
| b/r | 16 |
| NBC Sports | 16 |
| ESPN | 16 |
| CBS Sports | 17 |
| Mike DeCourcy | 18 |
| SB Nation | 18 |
| Midwest Sports Fans | 18 |
| Yahoo! | 19 |
| Rush the Court | 19 |
| Blue Ribbon | 20 |
| Run the Floor | 20 |
| Jon Rothstein | 22 |
| Sheridan Hoops | 22 |
| Sports Illustrated | 23 |
| Team Rankings | 28 |
