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March Madness – (3) Notre Dame vs. (1) Kentucky

Zack Garrison

by Zack Garrison in News

Updated Jan 17, 2018 · 9:40 AM PST

(3) Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. (1) Kentucky Wildcats (-11, 136 o/u)

After humiliating the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Sweet 16, the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats (37-0, 18-0 SEC) turn their ferocious gaze to the No 3. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (32-5, 14-4 ACC) in the Elite Eight tonight (8:49 PM Eastern at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland).

With a 37-0 record and a 78-39 win over West Virginia, The Wildcats looked nearly unstoppable on Thursday, doubling up the Mountaineers 78-39.  Kentucky played its usual brand of stifling defense, but also shot the ball well, too, hitting on 48-percent of its shots from the floor.

“They were what I thought they were,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said the crushing loss. “That’s the best defensive team I think that I’ve ever coached against. And when they’re making shots, there’s nobody going to beat them.”

Notre Dame didn’t play their best basketball in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament but showed up big time on Thursday, downing Wichita State 81-70 and shooting over 55-percent from the field.

“It’s like blood in the water. You feel it, and you want to keep getting stops so you can keep running,” said Pat Connaughton, who had 16 points and ten boards in the win. “It’s something you can’t get enough of.”

Notre Dame beat Kentucky by 14 the last time these two programs met in 2012, but those were both starkly different teams.  This time, the Wildcats are 11-point favorites and the game total is at 136.

Looking at the trends, the Fighting Irish are 1-8 ATS in their last nine NCAA Tournament games, while the Wildcats are 12-3-2 ATS in their last 17 neutral site games.

Whether the Irish can cover will depend entirely on how they shoot against potent Kentucky defense. If they knock down the (few) open looks they get, they should be able to keep it close. If the big stage gets to them, look for Kentucky to run away with another one and cover.

(Photo credit: Thomson20192 (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)

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