The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Miami Hurricanes meet Saturday in college basketball action from BankUnited Center. Here’s a Miami vs Notre Dame prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Miami vs Notre Dame pick.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Betting Preview
The Irish have had a handful of good runs so far this year, and also a handful of rough stretches. The result has been a .500 record on the season during a pretty erratic campaign. Notre Dame beat Stonehill, Buffalo, Georgetown and North Dakota out of the gate, then fell to Elon, Rutgers, Houston, Creighton and Georgia in the next five outings. Three wins over Syracuse, Dartmouth and Le Moyne came next, then four losses in succession versus Georgia Tech, North Carolina, NC State and Duke. The last four games have been a 3-1 stretch for the Fighting Irish. The lone loss came versus Syracuse. Otherwise it was wins over Boston College, Virginia and Georgia Tech, giving Notre Dame a 10-10 overall record through 20 games so far.
In the Georgia Tech matchup on Tuesday, the Irish came out of the gate with a 37-37 tie by halftime. Notre Dame hit a 34-31 advantage the rest of the way, powering out a 71-68 victory in the end. Leading the team in scoring was Markus Burton with 26 points, three rebounds, four assists and three steals. Braeden Shrewsberry added 15 points in 35 minutes as the only other team player in double-figures. Tops off the bench was Nikita Kostantynovskyi with six points.
Miami Hurricanes Betting Preview
Over on the Miami side, they opened up the season on a very brief promising run. Since November 17 however, the Hurricanes have recorded just one win. The first three games were all wins over Fairleigh Dickinson, Binghamton and Coppin State. A losing streak came next versus Drake, Oklahoma State, VCU, Charleston Southern, Arkansas, Clemson and Tennessee. Miami’s most recent victory came on December 15 versus Presbyterian, and since then it’s been another string of losses. Those have come versus Mount St. Mary’s, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Wake Forest, Duke, SMU, Stanford, Cal and Virginia in succession, giving Miami a rough 4-17 overall record though the first 21 outings of the season.
Matched up against Virginia in their Wednesday game, the Hurricanes were blasted 40-29 in the first half. Miami managed to keep the pace from there on a 42-42 run, but eventually fell by double-digits 82-71. Matthew Cleveland did the lion’s share of the scoring in the loss iwht 27 points, four rebounds and two assists. Brandon Johnson was the only other team player to reach double-figures with 13 points, seven boards, two assists and two steals. Lynn Kidd was tops off the bench with seven points, three rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes of work.
Why the Miami Hurricanes will win
- Notre Dame has lost 12 of its last 13 Saturday road games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.
- The home team has won 10 of Notre Dame’s last 12 games.
- Miami (FL) has won the first half in 13 of its last 17 night games at Watsco Center against non-AP-ranked opponents.
Why the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will win
- Miami (FL) has lost each of its last 20 games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.
- Notre Dame has won five of its last six night games.
- Miami (FL) has lost the first half in each of its last eight games against the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Miami vs Notre Dame Prediction
I’ll stay with Notre Dame. The Irish had a little trouble getting past a middling Georgia Tech squad in their last game, but everything worked out well in the end. Notre Dame shot 47.2 percent from the field in that one with a 32-29 rebounding advantage but did have 10 turnovers for 11 Yellow Jackets points. Notre Dame has scored 69 or more points in five straight games and 71 or more in three of the last four (all three were wins).
As for Miami, they shot well in their latest loss to Virginia (51 percent) but also gave up a lot on the other side (54.9 percent). The 27-24 rebounding deficit and 11 turnovers for 18 Cavaliers points didn’t help matters, either. Miami is giving up a truckload of points to all opponents this season: they’ve surrendered 75 or more points in 12 straight games (a 1-11 run). Notre Dame shouldn’t have too many issues posting a hefty total here, even on the road.