Without star guard Demetrius Jackson against Syracuse, the Fighting Irish struggled to create any offense in a 15 point loss. He looks to be close to healthy though after scoring 14 points in Notre Dame's easy victory over Wake Forest on Sunday and the Irish will need his scoring if they hope to knock off the No. 17 Miami Hurricanes in Coral Gables.
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HOW THE NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH CAN COVER THE SPREAD
Jackson has been the primary cog in Notre Dame's offense all year and in his absence Notre Dame fell behind Syracuse by 17 at halftime and the Orange coasted the rest of the way. Of the players who played significant minutes, only V.J. Beachem shot better than 50 percent from the field and the team as a whole hit just 41.8 percent of their shots from the floor.
Beachem has had a hot hand of late, putting up double digits in each of Notre Dame's last three games while shooting 57 percent from the field. Mike Brey needs another scorer when March rolls around and if Beachem can emerge as another threat, Notre Dame becomes a very dangerous team.
Steve Vasturia acquitted himself well in his first start ever at point guard in Jackson's stead. It was a given that he would be tested against the Orange defense and he did struggle a bit, but only committing four turnovers in 37 minutes of play was probably a win for the Irish at the end of the day. He still continued to score at his normal clip as well, 16 points, it was just the rest of the team that let Notre Dame down.
HOW THE MIAMI HURRICANES CAN COVER THE SPREAD
The Hurricanes were riding high after a win against the Duke Blue Devils last Monday and maybe weren't expecting that much of a game from North Carolina St. The Wolfpack weren't to be underestimated though and blitzed the Hurricanes 85-69.
Miami has a senior laden team who knows this is their last chance to win something big for The U. Sheldon McClellan leads the team in scoring with 16.4 points per game and is hitting 51.7 percent of his shots on the season. Angel Rodriguez leads the team in assists and runs the team at the point guard position while averaging double digits scoring a game. Tonye Jekiri is also a major contributor with 8.1 points a game and leads the team with 9.8 rebounds per game.
In all, seniors make up four of the top six scorers on this team and contribute to more than half the Canes’ points. This team is battle tested and looking to prove itself after falling apart and not making the tournament last season.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
Notre Dame has struggled all season for bettors, only managing an 8-10-1 ATS mark, but have covered three of their five true road games. The Hurricanes have been the exact opposite, rewarding bettors with an 11-7-1 ATS mark overall and a 7-2-1 record against the number at home.
Both teams are more prone to play games that go over the total this season. The over is 11-8 in Fighting Irish games and has hit 10 of 19 times in Miami games.
The last time these two teams faced each other, Notre Dame dashed Miami's tournament dreams by handing them a defeat in the conference tournament. This time barring a complete collapse, the Hurricanes should make the tournament and it's Notre Dame that might need a win for their tournament hopes.
Expect a close back and forth game that Miami wins in the final few minutes this time.
Miami 71, Notre Dame 67
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