Louisville at Notre Dame Spread, Expert Pick & TV Info

Posted by Kenny Bell on Tuesday,January 3, 2017 8:55, EDT in

There are two matchups on Wednesday’s college basketball betting schedule that feature ranked teams, and one has No. 6 Louisville visiting No. 23 Notre Dame. The Cardinals already have a great win over Kentucky but want to avoid falling to 0-2 in ACC play in the early going. They are likely to be slight betting favorites vs. the Irish.

Louisville at Notre Dame Spread, Expert Pick & TV Info

When: Wednesday, Jan. 4, 9 PM ET
Where: Purcell Pavilion, South Bend
TV: ACC Extra
Stream: WatchESPN
Radio: Louisville / Notre Dame
Opening NCAA Basketball Lines: TBA

Why Bet On Louisville?

The Cardinals come off a real nice 77-62 win over No. 16 Indiana on Saturday in Indianapolis Donovan Mitchell scored a career-high 25 points and Deng Adel had 17. The Cardinals (12-2) closed out their non-conference schedule with three wins over Top 20 teams.

Mitchell had been mired in a shooting and scoring slump, going just 16-for- 54 from the floor in his previous five games. He was hesitant and unsure, passing up open jump shots for contested drives. But he was so red-hot that Indiana at one point went to a box-and- one defense to try and stop him. Mitchell also connected on a career-high four three-pointers in the game, finishing 4-of- 8 from behind the arc. Indiana used a 13-4 spurt to cut the Cardinals’ 14-point lead to 50-44 with 12:20 left, but Mitchell scored eight straight points for Louisville to make it 58-46 and the Hoosiers never got closer than seven the rest of the way. The Cardinals held one of the nation’s best offensive teams to 32.2 percent shooting, a season-low point total and forced 14 turnovers. UofL produced two runs of 8-0 or better on Saturday and the Cardinals have a total of 28 runs of 8-0 or better this season.

Freshman V.J. King made his first career start. Junior Anas Mahmoud and sophomore Ray Spaulding made their first starts of the season as well. It was the fifth career start for Mahmoud and the seventh career start for Spaulding.

Louisville has a 35-7 record over the last five years in neutral site games. They are 45-14 over the last eight years at neutral sites. They have a collective 13-7 record in neutral site games played in Indianapolis. The Cardinals shot a season-high 52.9 percent from the field. Louisville also shot a season- high 83.3 percentage from the foul line.

The Cards’ ACC loss was 61-53 vs. No. 12 Virginia on Dec. 28. Notre Dame is the fourth consecutive Top 25 Associated Press ranked opponent for Louisville, marking the first time the Cardinals have ever faced four straight ranked opponents in the regular season.

Why Bet On Notre Dame?

Notre Dame (12-2), ranked 23rd by AP and 21st by USA Today, has lost only to No. 1 Villanova and No. 15 Purdue in neutral site games this season. Notre Dame won 78-77 in overtime at Pitt on Dec. 31 in its ACC opener.

Trailing 77-75 in the final seconds of overtime, Notre Dame junior guard Matt Farrell drove the lane and managed to find an open Steve Vasturia in the corner, who buried a three with 2.5 seconds left to deliver the Irish the win. Vasturia also knocked down a critical three earlier in the extra session to tie the game at 75-75 with just over a minute to play.

Vasturia was one of four Notre Dame players to finish with double figures in the scoring column, as the senior totaled 15 for the game. Junior forward Bonzie Colson led the Irish with 21 points and added 14 rebounds, while Farrell poured in 16 points and junior forward Martinas Geben produced a season-high 10 points.

Farrell finished in double figures in points for the 10th time this season, and has scored 16-plus points in all six matchups against power conference opponents. Colson has scored double-digit points in every game during his junior campaign (14 games). Saturday marked his fourth 20-plus point, 10-plus rebound performance of the season.

The Fighting Irish lead the nation in assist-turnover ratio (2.02), free throw percentage (.841) and fewest turnovers per game (9.2); and they are sixth in assists per game (18.6), 12th in three-point field goals per game (10.1), 19th in scoring margin (+17.0), and 27th in scoring offense (83.2 ppg), and 35th in three-point field goal percentage (.396).

Louisville has a 20-14 series advantage over Notre Dame, but the Cardinals have won just four of 12 matchups at Notre Dame. In the last meeting, the Fighting Irish won 71-66 over Louisville at Notre Dame as Demetrius Jackson scored 27 points and Steve Vasturia added 20 for the Irish (2-13- 16).

Louisville at Notre Dame Expert Pick: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Go Irish at home in NCAA betting.