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It’s been an awful year for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. There was a lot of optimism coming into the season after Georgia Tech made it to the NIT Finals last year, but the Yellow Jackets don’t have a winning record entering ACC play. They already have some terrible losses on their resume this season and this team might just be the worst in the conference. Georgia Tech will have its work cut out for it when it travels north to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
This war on the floor will go down Saturday, December 30, 2017, at 2 p.m. ET at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Indiana. The game will be televised live on ESPNU. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Saturday schedule.
Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
Notre Dame has a great win over Wichita State on its resume, but losses to in-state foes Ball State and Indiana sting. The Irish have only covered one of their last five games, a 92-68 win over Delaware. Each of their last five games have went over the total thanks to a mediocre performance on defense and a good performance on offense.
The Yellow Jackets have played solid defense this season. However, the offense has been abysmal. Georgia Tech has scored 70 or more points just four times this year, and three of those times came against bad opponents. This team is just 3-5 ATS on the season and has failed to cover in four of its last five. Defensive lapses have pushed four of their last five over the total as well.
Player to Watch
The good news for Georgia Tech is that its best player is able to suit up again. Josh Okogie was suspended for the first eight games of the season because of a self-reported NCAA violation, but has been able to play in each of the last three.
Okogie is averaging over 20 PPG and is looking to build off of a promising freshman year. He had a bad shooting performance against Georgia, but was solid against Florida A&M and Wright State. He hit 13 of 25 field goals against those two teams.
Now that he is back Georgia Tech’s offense should be better. The Yellow Jackets are averaging just 66.4 PPG this season and his presence will provide an uptick in this department.
Key Stat
Notre Dame has some great guards that can shoot from distance. This is a team that loves to shoot from range and over a third of its field goal attempts are three-pointers.
The Irish are sinking 40.1 percent of their attempts, with T.J. Gibbs and Matt Farrell being the primary rainmakers from the outside. The two are combining to sink five threes a game this year and have been tough to stop with how well Notre Dame distributes the ball.
Georgia Tech has had a very difficult time stopping the three. The Yellow Jackets have allowed opponents to hit 37.5 percent of their three-pointers this season, and that has been what has killed this defense. That allowed both Grambling and Wright State to pull off upsets against Georgia Tech.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
Notre Dame should be a double-digit favorite in this game. This is just a bad matchup for the Yellow Jackets. They are unable to stop the three and cannot score at the same rate that Notre Dame can.
Additionally, Georgia Tech is not going to be able to stop Bonzie Colson. Colson is one of the best undersized forwards you will find at this level and constantly plays above his height. He no longer has to deal with the bigs that Georgia Tech had last year, and should have a great game in a big Notre Dame victory.
College Basketball Odds: Notre Dame 79, Georgia Tech 67
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