College Basketball on Monday and we will see the Notre Dame Fighting Irish travel to the Carrier Dome to take on the Syracuse Orangemen. The game is scheduled for a 7:00 pm (Eastern) start time and will be televised on ESPN. Currently the odds for the game have Syracuse favored by 8 points while the total sits at 133. Check out Sportsbook Spy to see who the Public is taking on all of today's games.
Analysis: The Fighting Irish can bolster up their NCAA Tournament resume with a road win against the Orange. Notre Dame struggled on the road on Saturday and had to go overtime to defeat lowly DePaul. That victory moved the team to 18-4 overall, including 6-4 in the Big East standings, a half-game behind Syracuse and Marquette for first place. The Fighting Irish have won three consecutive games overall. Senior forward Jack Cooley continued his huge season with 26 points and 16 rebounds in the victory over DePaul. Cooley fell one point shy of tying his career-best output and did match his season high for rebounding. He has grabbed 15 or more rebounds five times in his career and has recorded 14 double-doubles this season. Cooley leads the Fighting Irish in both scoring (15) and rebounding (11.3). Junior guard Jerian Grant averages 12.6 points and junior guard Eric Atkins chips in 11.8. Notre Dame commits just 10.3 turnovers per game and has had fewer than 10 miscues in six of its nine Big East contests.
Syracuse comes into this one looking to snap a two-game slide. First, the Orange were upset, 75-71, in overtime at Villanova before they suffered a 65-55 setback at Pittsburgh on Saturday. The back-to-back setbacks have given Jim Boeheim's squad its first losing streak during the conference portion of the schedule since the 2010-11 campaign. Still, the team puts the nation's longest homecourt win streak on the line, having won 35 straight at the Carrier Dome. The offense stagnates when both senior Brandon Triche and sophomore Michael Carter-Williams are struggling with their shots in the same game. The two guards were a combined 7-of-26 from the field – including 1-for-10 from 3-point range – in the loss to Pittsburgh. “We missed a lot of shots,” Carter-Williams said afterward. “I was like 3-for-12. Brandon didn’t shoot the ball great. So if me and him don’t shoot the ball good, we’re going to lose.” Triche averages a team-high 14.9 points while Carter-Williams averages 12.6 points and 8.6 assists. Junior forward C.J. Fair scored 20 points against the Panthers and averages 13.7 points and a team-leading seven rebounds.
Free Pick: Notre Dame's burn offense. When ever the Irish try for a big upset they seem to go to the burn offense a bit more and I really look for them to take the air out of the ball in this. They ran with Depaul and they won the game, but the Blue Demons don't really play defense anyway. Notre Dame does not want to get into a running game with this team or they could get blown out. If the Irish make it a half court game they have a much better shot at pulling the upset. The Irish have had some recent defensive lapse, but they still have allowed just 62.3 ppg on 40.9% shooting on the year. The Orange haven't had many defensive lapses this year as they have allowed 59.3 ppg on 36.4% shooting overall, while at home they have given up just 54.9 pg on 34.7. Their Big East games have averaged 124.1 ppg (Regulation) and they have allowed just 59.1 ppg (Regulation) in those 8 game, while Notre Dame's last 9 Big East games (Regulation) have averaged 128.3 ppg. Big East games have been lower scoring than in years past and this will be no exception as the game will be played in the 50's r at most the low 60's.
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