The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Texas Tech Red Raiders meet Sunday in the college basketball NCAA Tournament Second Round at the Viejas Arena. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish look for another win after already beating Rutgers and Alabama. The Texas Tech Red Raiders look for another win after beating Montana State in the first round.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are averaging 72.3 points on 46 percent shooting and allowing 66.2 points on 42.7 percent shooting. Paul Atkinson Jr. is averaging 16 points and 6 rebounds, while Blake Wesley is averaging 14.4 points and 3.6 rebounds. Dane Goodwin is the third double-digit scorer and Paul Atkinson Jr. is grabbing 6.9 rebounds. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are shooting 38 percent from beyond the arc and 75.3 percent from the free throw line. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are allowing 31.7 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 32.1 rebounds per game.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders are averaging 72.4 points on 47 percent shooting and allowing 60.7 points on 38.5 percent shooting. Bryson Williams is averaging 13.7 points and 1 assist, while Terrence Shannon Jr. is averaging 10.4 points and 2.8 rebounds. Davion Warren is dishing 1.6 assists and Kevin McCullar is grabbing 5 rebounds. The Texas Tech Red Raiders are shooting 31.4 percent from beyond the arc and 70.5 percent from the free throw line. The Texas Tech Red Raiders are allowing 32.1 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 33.7 rebounds per game.
The Fighting Irish are 3-7 ATS in their last 10 neutral site games and 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games overall. The Red Raiders are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 Sunday games and 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games overall. The over is 8-1-1 in Fighting Irish last 10 overall. The under is 7-3 in Red Raiders last 10 neutral site games.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders are the better team, obviously, should be the fresher side, and they’ve been great at covering numbers all season. However, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have found their footing over these last few weeks and their offense is heating up as of late. Notre Dame is shooting 51.1 percent from the field and 43.3 percent from deep in its last five games. That Texas Tech defense will be a challenge, but this is an experienced Irish team that jut finds ways to hang around and makes shots down the stretch. This could be a 40-minute battle. Give me the points.