Louisville Cardinals @ Notre Dame Fighting Irish Big East Tournament Pick

Louisville Cardinals @ Notre Dame Fighting Irish Big East Tournament Pick: This game is getting played at Madison Square Garden in New York, so I’m not looking at any sort of home court advantage for either of these teams. The Cardinals ran through Marquette like the Golden Eagles were one of those paper banners that football teams destroy coming out of halftime. It was easy. 81-56 was the final score, and the first half was close (Louisville was up 5 going into the 2nd half) but Marquette couldn’t hang, and the Cardinals outscored them by 20 in the 2nd. Louisville hit 13 threes and won the rebound war, and blocked 4 more shots than Marquette. Louisville’s length and speed was too much.

Notre Dame destroyed Cincinnati 89-51 despite being just a 2 point favorite. They were up 10 at half, and outscored the Bearcats 49-21 in the 2nd half – and maybe it wasn’t that close. Like the Cardinals, the Irish were hot from 3pt land and basically did everything better than Cinci.

A crazy statistic with these two teams. Since 2006, these schools have played 7 times – 4 of those games have gone to overtime. Notre Dame is 6-1 ATS in those 7 games, but Louisville has won 4 times. This is a battle every time these two teams step foot on the floor, and I’m pretty excited to see what happens on Friday Night.

Earlier this year, Notre Dame won in overtime. The Irish have been the best team in the Big East over the last half of the season, winning 12 of their last 13 games counting Thursday’s victory over Cincinnati. I think they end up taking down Louisville in this game. The line is going to be tight (currently not up at any books I can find) so the winner will most likely cover the spread. The Irish just play too smart, and they seem like a team built for tournament play. Good luck! Cardinals 74 – Irish 80.

Louisville Cardinals @ Notre Dame Fighting Irish