Kentucky Meets Notre Dame in Elite 8 Showdown
The Elite 8 will start play on Saturday with two great matchups of which one features the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed the Kentucky Wildcats facing the No. 3 seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The winner of this game will move on to next week’s Final Four.
Notre Dame is 32-5 SU and 16-13 ATS and played impressively in its win on Thursday over Wichita State. However, Notre Dame was not able to double its opponents output in points. On Thursday, Kentucky 37-0 SU and 20-15-2 ATS was able to claim that impressive feat by embarrassing West Virginia 78-39.
The current line for this Elite 8 game between Kentucky and Notre Dame has Kentucky as 11-point chalk with the point total for the over/under on 136.
Each team covered in their Sweet 16 game, which were the first covers in the tournament for both teams. The UNDER has combined to go 4-2 in the six games played.
Notre Dame showed in their win over Wichita State just how strong offensively the team is. Overall, the Irish shot 55.6% from the floor, including 75% in the second half. Notre Dame recorded 18 assists on just 30 baskets and hit 12 of their 15 foul shots.
Kentucky not only shut the Mountaineers offense down, but also on offense committed just 10 turnovers, against a West Virginia team that full court presses nearly the entire game.
Kentucky could have defeated West Virginia just with its first half scoring of 44 points, with the final being 48-39.
Bob Huggins the veteran coach for West Virginia said the Kentucky defense was the best he had ever coached against in his career.
Jerian Grant who will soon be drafted by the NBA runs the Notre Dame offense, which is likely the best offense Kentucky has seen to date.
The one big thing against Notre Dame in this matchup is size. Kentucky’s twin guards the Harrison brothers at 6-foot-6 are taller than four of Notre Dame’s five starters.
In each game that has been close for Kentucky this season, teams such as Texas A&M used tough defense, while LSU was able to match up with size. However, Notre Dame’s defense is suspect and their size is non-existent.
Ole Miss took Kentucky to overtime, but that was following the holiday break and Kentucky played terrible defense, you can be sure that the Kentucky defense will be tuned in for this game.
If Kentucky is able to cover the number, look for the game to finish UNDER. That is a combination that occurred on 16 occasions this season.
If Notre Dame is able to cover, it should mean up-tempo lots of scoring and the OVER.
Prediction: I like Kentucky and the UNDER.
