The No. 3 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish will have a score to settle when they run up against the No. 6 seed Virginia Cavaliers in the quarterfinal round of the ACC tournament. The Wahoos went into South Bend earlier this season and handed Mike Brey’s Irish one of only two home defeats the team absorbed all season. Easier said than done however with Tony Bennett’s squad once again looking like the dominating bunch we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in recent years.
This war on the floor will go down Thursday, March 9, 2017, at 9 p.m. ET at the Barclays Center. The game will be televised live on ESPN. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on Thursday’s college basketball schedule.
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Had the Wahoos not dropped four in a row in the middle of February, it’s likely they would have had byes through the first two rounds instead of Notre Dame. Be that as it may, the losing streak is now a thing of the past with Virginia rattling off four straight wins and covers to seemingly get back on track when it matters most. Though three of those games came against cellar dwellers PITT and Boston College, the Cavs can still throw their hat on the 53-43 utter domination of North Carolina. Wednesday’s 75-63 win and cover versus the Panthers moved London Perrantes and company to 3-0 straight up and against the spread on neutral courts with the other two wins coming against Iowa and Providence.
Notre Dame went into its regular season finale on a major high after winning each of its previous six games to catapult itself back into the mix for one of the top four seeds in this tournament. With North Carolina hooking them up by beating Duke, the 71-64 loss incurred at Louisville allowed them to snag the No. 3 seed. It also saw them cover their second straight game and sixth in their last eight tries. ND won five of its nine played true road games in the regular season, and covered them at an impressive 6-2-1 clip. On neutral courts, they went 2-2 straight up and against the spread.
Player to Watch
Bonzie Colson – As the big man goes, so goes the Irish. He averages a team-high 17.0 points per game on a 52.3 percent conversion rate from the field. Bonzie has been coming up bog for Notre Dame all season, and that likely won’t change in this tilt. He tallied a team-high 20 points in the home meeting with the Cavaliers back on January 24, and was the only true standout on the offense with it having all kinds of issues producing against the Cavaliers unforgiving defense. Should he go off once again, it will force Virginia to double team him down low which would open up some wide open looks from deep for V.J. Beachem, Matt Farrell and Steve Vasturia to take advantage of. They’ll have to hit them though this time around after combining for a 3 for 13 effort in the first go round.
Key Stat
18 – The Cavaliers flat out destroyed the Irish on the glass in the first meeting outboarding them 35-17. Isaiah Williams and Devon Hall combined for 18 rebounds which was one more than Notre Dame pulled down for the game. In doing so, Virginia was able to shorten the game immensely and only made the defense contest a grand total of 48 shots. Virginia’s No. 351 pace makes Notre Dame’s No. 220 makes it look like a speed demon, but the Irish will lose that battle by a country mile if they’re unable to drastically reduce the Cavaliers second chance scoring opportunities.
Free College Basketball ATS Pick
Sorry folks, but Notre Dame was not the third best team in the ACC this season. Heck, I don’t even think they were the sixth best team. It lives and dies with the 3 ball and plays a much lesser form of defense than previous editions. While it is the best free throw shooting team in the country, UVA only commits an average of 16.0 fouls per game and was only whistled for 17 in the Irish’s own gym the first go round. Carry that over to a neutral court and it’s safe to say Notre Dame won’t be doing much damage from the charity stripe.
The Irish will once again face a steep uphill climb to put points on the board if Colson is the only viable option. If he doesn’t get help, this game’s end result will likely end up eerily similar to the first showdown. ND has failed to win or cover any of its five run-ins with the Cavaliers since becoming a member of the ACC, and that streak won’t be coming to an end tonight either.
College Basketball Odds: Virginia 72, Notre Dame 59
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