Stats were gathered using teamrankings.com, foxsports.com, evanmiya.com. Stats with parenthesis are the team’s national rank in this statistic. Evan Miya OBPR is a offensive efficiency statistic that predicts future outcomes. Evan Miya DBPR is a defensive efficiency statistic that predicts future outcomes. Evan Miya BPR combines OBPR and DBPR together.

                Notre Dame is a team that likes to spread everyone out and finds open shots on the perimeter. Notre Dame is ranked 11^th in mid range shots and 87^th in 3 point percentage. Notre Dame is bigger than years past with Nate Laszewski and Paul Atkinson Junior. Nate being 6’10 and Paul listed at 6’9 on ESPN. Notre Dame shoots a high percentage of shots away from the rim and ranks middle of the pack in the ACC with points per possession. Notre Dame will try to slow Louisville down and play at a slow pace in the half court, which could be troublesome if Louisville cannot get the offense rolling tonight. Notre Dame struggles defensively at times and will allow games to be high scoring. Examples of this are North Carolina scoring 73, Virginia Tech scoring 79, and Howard scoring 68. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this total reach around 140.

                Notre Dame is has some recognizable guys that have been around the program, but they do have one new face that will present trouble for Louisville today. Blake Wesley is a 6’5 guard who is averaging 14 points a game. Blake looks to be the main scorer for the Irish and someone who can get to the basket. He shoots the majority of the threes along with Goodwin and will pose trouble at all levels of the court. Blake Wesley is my prediction to have the most scored points in tonight’s game because I don’t think we have the guards to keep him in front. Dane Goodwin is the Irish’s leading scorer with 15 points a game and averaging 5 rebounds a game. Dane Goodwin is a sharpshooter shooting 47.8% from three this year, which is insane. Dane Goodwin has 78 attempts from three, so this isn’t from a small sample size either. Louisville will have to make sure to closeout on him from the perimeter.

                I want to see two things differ in today games, which Sydney Curry playing the five over Malik and Louisville stay in a zone defense the majority of the game. I don’t know if Malik is hurt, but he is getting beat down low and was even beat off the dribble by Boston College’s seven footer off the dribble at the top of the key. Malik will look for more perimeter shots than down in the paint, which Louisville does not need. I don’t mind him playing with Sydney, but Mack seemed to only do this for short bursts of time and never return to it to either appease the fan base or reward Sydney. I have been saying this for awhile, but Louisville’s guards are not athletic enough for the pac line defense. Mack seems to be working in a zone defense, but its time to make that switch because Louisville looks better in this than the pac line.

                Today will be fun to reminisce on better times with Russ. I’ll be heavily intoxicated by the time his jersey is unraveled and want to enjoy the moment as much as possible. I don’t expect Louisville to win this one and make the right adjustments. I think Louisville will lose 76-70. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I don’t expect Mack to make the right adjustments.

-degenerateCard

Stats via teamrankings.com, evanmiya.com, espn.com, foxsports.com, and haslemetrics.com