College basketball on Saturday and we will see the Rutgers Scarlet Knights travel to South Bend, Indiana to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The game is scheduled for an 8:00 pm (Eastern) start time and will be televised locally. Currently the odds for the game have Notre Dame favored by 12.5 points while the total sits at 136.5. Check out Sportsbook Spy to see who the Public is taking on all of today's games.
Free Analysis: Mike Rice's Scarlet Knights are a solid 11-4 on the year and is 3-2 in conference play thus far. Rutgers has won three of its last four games and enters this contest off a hard-fought 70-67 win over USF this week. Rutgers overcame a 3-point deficit at intermission, shooting .515 from the floor in the second half to earn the win at home against the Bulls. Wally Judge led the team in victory with 14 points. Myles Mack and Eli Carter added 13 points apiece. The team's 3-2 start to Big East play is its best since the 1999-2000 campaign. The Scarlet Knights aren't putting up eye-popping scoring totals, averaging a modest 70.2 ppg, however, they have been efficient, shooting .465 from the field overall. Carter is the team's top scoring option at 15.9 ppg, but could be putting up better numbers if not for a rather weak .395 shooting. Mack is the only other double-digit average on the team with 13.0 ppg, on .530 shooting.
Mike Brey's Irish won 14 of their first 15 games this season and certainly looked the part of a conference contender. However, Notre Dame has hit a wall of late, with back-to-back conference losses to Connecticut (65-58) and most recently, St. John's (67-63). The setbacks spoiled a strong start to Big East play for the Irish who are now just 2-2 in-conference. The Irish aren't the biggest team around, employing a four-guard set in the starting five, but the team's one presence up front has dominated in the form of 6-foot-9 senior Jack Cooley. The veteran forward is converting over 60 percent of his shots on the year (.608) and is averaging a double-double with team-highs of 14.8 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. Guards Jerian Grant (12.6 ppg) and Eric Atkins (12.2 ppg) are the perfect complements with their perimeter scoring and also team-up to form quite the one-two punch in terms of assists. The two have combined for 204 assists on the year.
Free Pick: Gonna be brief with this one, but I like the Over. Rutgers is showing that they want to push tempo and Notre Dame has played that way at times this year. The Iris average 75 ppg at home, while Rutgers allows 69 ppg on the road. Should be a rather uptempo game with about 140 points scored.
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