Sports Poets Society

2:00 PM ET, February 28, 2015 Cintas Center, Cincinnati, Ohio Points Rebounds Assists VILL Hillia... 14.7 Ochefu 8.3 Arcidi... 3.6 XAV Bluiett 12.3 Stainb... 6.7 Davis 6.1 Villanova is on the verge of repeating as outright Big East regular-season champions. Wrapping it up as quickly as possible might be tough against an opponent that also has plenty to play for. Xavier already has four wins over Top 25 foes but earning one Saturday over the sixth-ranked Wildcats would certainly be the most meaningful to its NCAA tournament hopes, not to mention a great way to celebrate senior day at the Cintas Center. Villanova (26-2, 13-2) has won nine straight -- the last three by an average of 21.6 points -- to claim a piece of the Big East regular-season crown. The Wildcats won't have to share it if they win one of their final three games or if Butler and Georgetown each lose once, so it seems a foregone conclusion that the outright title is theirs. However, they don...

The Rating Percentage Index (RPI)  is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team's wins and losses and its strength of schedule .  It is one of the sports rating systems by which NCAA basketball , baseball, softball, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball teams are ranked.  This system has been in use in college basketball since 1981 to aid in the selecting and seeding of teams appearing in the men's playoffs ( March Madness ), and for the women's tournament since its inception in 1982 .  In its current formulation, the index comprises a team's winning percentage (25%), its opponents' winning percentage (50%), and the winning percentage of those opponents' opponents (25%). The opponents' winning percentage and the winning percentage of those opponents' opponents both comprise the strength of schedule (SOS).  Thus, the SOS accounts for 75% of the RPI calculation and is 2/3 its opponents' winning percentage and 1/3 its op...