College Basketball on Thursday and we will see the Kentucky Wildcats travel to South Bend, Indiana to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as part of the SEC/ Big East Challenge. The game is scheduled for a 7:00 pm (Eastern) start time and will be televised live on ESPN 2. Currently the odds for the game have Notre Dame favored by 1.5 points while the total sits at 134. Check out Sportsbook Spy to see who the Public is taking on all of today's games.
Free Analysis: The defending national champion Wildcats are 4-1 on the young season, thanks to wins over Maryland, Lafayette, Morehead State and LIU-Brooklyn. The team's lone setback came against another traditional power in Duke, and counting this game, it will face three tough non-conference foes, Baylor and Louisville being the others, prior to opening SEC play at Vanderbilt on Jan. 10, 2013. Kentucky's new crops of talented freshmen continue to impress, as Alex Poythress and Archie Goodwin scored 22 points apiece in leading the Wildcats to a 104-75 blowout win over LIU-Brooklyn last Friday. Goodwin nearly logged a triple-double as he also grabbed nine rebounds and dished out nine assists, while Poythress, who has tallied at least 20 points in each of the last four outings, also had nine boards in his 29 minutes of action. For the season, Kentucky is putting up 85.2 ppg while allowing 67.6 ppg. The team is hitting 55.8 percent of its total shots, which includes a gaudy 46.2 percent effort from beyond the arc, while its foes connect on just 39.1 percent overall, with a mere 28.4 percent of their three- point tries finding the bottom of the net. Goodwin (19.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 4.4 apg) paces the club at the offensive end, while Poythress (18.4 ppg, 7.4 rpg) is hot on his heels. Nerlens (12.4 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 3.6 bpg) and Kyle Wiltjer (12.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg) round out the unit's double-digit scorers.
The Irish suffered an overtime loss to St. Joe’s during the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic earlier this month but have recovered nicely, especially on the defensive end. Notre Dame is allowing just 58.3 points during its four-game winning streak. Their most recent win was a 92-65 rout of Chicago State on Monday. UND is 45-0 at home in the month of November under head coach Mike Brey, and the Irish have won 11 straight in South Bend, and they are 40-1 in their last 41 home games overall. Six players scored in double figures in Monday’s 92-65 win over Chicago State, led by Jerian Grant’s 22 points and 10 assists. The Irish are so balanced offensively that Cooley only had four field goal attempts (making all four) in the win. Cooley is averaging a double-double on the season with 14.3 points and 11.3 caroms per contest, while Atkins contributes 10.3 points and 6.7 assists per tilt. Grant (13.0 ppg, 4.7 apg) and Garrick Sherman (11.0 ppg) are both scoring in double figures as well for a team that nets 73.7 ppg while yielding just 59.7 ppg. UND is +7.0 in rebounding margin, but is -1.3 in the turnover department.
Free Pick: Gonna go with the Irish in this one. The Cats are a talented squad, but they are young and will struggle in the early season, especially in hostile venues and playing at Notre Dame can certainly be hostile. Kentucky did have a couple of blowout wins of late, but they also have showed their youth in close wins vs Maryland and Morgan State, plus their lone loss to Duke. This is not a normal Cats recruiting class that has a bunch of players that will go 1 year and then onto the pros. This is a youthful team that will go through growing pains. On the other side the irish are very tough at home and with all 5 starters back from last year they should have enough to eek out a close win over the Cats tonight.
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