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No. 11 Old Dominion (26-8) vs No. 6 Notre Dame (23-11)
NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional Round One
Thursday March 18, 2010 New Orleans 12:25 PM EST
The Line: Notre Dame -2
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish caught fire at just the right time of the season as they won six of their last seven to close out season and earn a berth in the NCAA tournament, something that seemed impossible this time last month. In the middle of conference play the Irish suffered a major blow as they lost their best player in Luke Harangody through injury and as a result lost their next three matches. However, the Irish rallied without Harangody and through unselfishness and tough defense proceed to win six in a row against the likes of Georgetown, Marquette, Connecticut and Pittsburgh twice to clinch a berth in March.
The Monarchs will be playing in their third NCAA tournament in six years as they clinched an automatic berth by taking down William and Mary 60-53 in the final of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. It was another stellar year for this deep veteran led Monarchs squad as they finished the season with 26-8 record and a 15-3 conference record, which was highlighted with a 61-57 win over the Georgetown Hoyas in their non-conference part of the schedule.
Offensively the Irish have the edge over the Monarchs as they finished the season scoring 76.8 ppg on 47.3% shooting, which was top 30 in the nation, while the Monarchs finished on 67.5 ppg on 44.8%, which was still in the top 100. Defensively ODU have a massive edge as they are top five in the nation in opponents points per game, only letting through 57.1 ppg. The Irish on the other rank in the 200’s as they let though 69.6 ppg. However, the Irish really clamped down defensively in their last five games as they held opponents to an amazing 52.8 ppg, which was 10 points better than ODU in their last five.
- Monarchs are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 vs. Big East.
- Monarchs are 7-19 ATS in their last 26 neutral site games.
- Monarchs are 2-7 ATS in their last 9 non-conference games.
- Fighting Irish are 8-0 ATS in their last 8 games overall.
- Fighting Irish are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 neutral site games.
- Fighting Irish are 7-0 ATS in their last 7 games following a ATS win.
This promises to a great match up between two veteran teams that can really get after you defensively. The Monarchs have been a great defensive unit all year and the general consensus is that they are a much better than Notre Dame on that side of the ball when in actually fact the Irish have been by far and away the better defensive team coming down the stretch. The Irish are holding opponents to 10 points per game less and they are doing it in a much tougher conference. Not to mention they are 8-0 ATS coming down the stretch while the Monarch are only 7-19 ATS in their last 26 neutral site games. I might be going with the public hear, but I don’t think people are giving Notre Dame the credit they deserve for what they have done in the last month, the Irish get the win here…
Dan’s Pick: Notre Dame -2
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