Tuesday night college basketball and we will see the Syracuse Orange travel to South Bend, Indiana to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The game has a start time of 8:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on the ACC Network. Current Vegas betting odds have the Irish listed as 8 point favorites, while the total is set at 143.5.
Analysis: The Syracuse Orange really have nothing to play for this year after the put self-imposed bans on themselves, which will keep them from any post-season play this year, including the ACC tournament. Its starting to show with this team as they have won just 3 of their last 9 games to fall to 7-6 in the ACC for the year and 17-10 overall. Syracuse has gone 28-7 ATS in their last 35 road games following three or more consecutive home games, but just 1-6-1 ATS in their last 8 games vs. a team with a winning S.U. record. The Orange have been a decent offensive squad this year, ranking 124th in scoring (69.4 ppg), 143rd in shooting (44.1%), 280th in 3 point shooting (31.4%) and 298th in FT shooting (65.6%). The defense for this team has been solid as they come in ranked 93rd in points allowed (63.0 ppg), 67th in defensive FG% (40.2%) and 73rd in 3 point defense (31.7%).
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have shaken off their 30 point loss at Duke to win their last 3 games. The Irish are now 24-4 overall for the year, including 16-1 at home, plus they are in second place in the ACC with a 12-3 mark. Notre Dame has gone 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games following a S.U. win, but just 12-25-1 ATS in their last 38 vs. the ACC and 7-19-2 ATS in their last 28 home games. The Irish have been a very good offensive squad this year, ranking 10th in scoring (79.8 ppg), 2nd in shooting (51.3%), 13th in 3 point shooting (40.4%) and 63rd in FT shooting (72.1%). The defense for this team has been rather average, ranking 148th in points allowed (65.4 ppg), 156th in defensive FG% (42.6%) and 219th in 3 point defense (34.8%).
Pick: Going with the Under here. I just feel this is too high a number with the way that Syracuse slows the game down with their zone defense, plus the fact that the most points scored in the last 4 meetings has been 128 points. The Irish do average 82.1 ppg at home, but they will be hard pressed to come close to that vs a Syracuse defense that has allowed just 63 ppg overall and 68 ppg on the road. The Irish has struggled some defensively at home in ACC play, but this is not a good shooting Syracuse team and still for the year Notre Dame has allowed just 62.6 ppg at home. There are some solid Over trends for this game, but still he Under is 5-0 the last 5 meetings and that is the trend I will side with here.
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