Notre Dame vs. Rutgers Bracket Prediction: March Madness Odds
The First Four of the 2022 NCAA Tournament from Dayton, Ohio, concludes Wednesday night with No. 11 seed Notre Dame facing No. 11 Rutgers. The Irish are 1-point favourites on the college basketball odds.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights NCAA Tournament Point Spread and Betting
The winner of this game from the West Region will face No. 6 seed Alabama on Friday from San Diego. I absolutely believe the winner here can knock off the Tide. A First Four team has won multiple games in nine of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments and UCLA reached the Final Four last year.
It’s the 37th NCAA Tournament appearance for Notre Dame and first since 2017 when the Irish beat Princeton in the first round and lost to West Virginia in Round 2. The team is 13-12 in NCAA Tournament play under Coach Mike Brey.
Rutgers is in the Big Dance for the eighth time and in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1974-75 and 1975-76 campaigns. Last year, the Knights beat No. 7 Clemson in the first round and gave No. 2 Houston all it could handle before a 63-60 loss in Round 2.
Notre Dame is 20-13 all-time vs. Rutgers, but they haven’t played since the 2013 Big East Tournament.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish (11)
How down was the Atlantic Coast Conference this season? The Irish (22-10) finished tied for second in regular-season action yet barely got an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament following an opening ACC Tournament loss to eventual champion Virginia Tech. It’s a good defensive team in allowing 66.8 points per game and held 17 total opponents to 65 points or less. Notre Dame relies heavily on the three-point shot and is 14-1 when it makes at least 10 of them. The only player with NCAA Tournament experience on the roster is Yale transfer and former Ivy League Player of the Year Paul Atkinson Jr. He sat out the 2020-21 season because the Ivy League didn’t compete during the pandemic. Atkinson is second among all active NCAA players in career field goal per centage, shooting .637. The Irish are a veteran team, although their most talented player overall is freshman Blake Wesley (14.6 ppg), who was named second-team All-ACC. ND is 1-7 ATS in their past eight neutral-site games.
Rutgers Scarlet Knights (11)
Rutgers (18-13) made history in February with four straight wins over ranked teams, the first unranked school to ever do that. However, the Knights lost four of six to close the season after that stretch.
Coach Steve Pikiell did get a big contract extension recently thanks to a third consecutive winning season, a feat that had not been accomplished in over 30 years. Rutgers is also a veteran team led by senior Ron Harper Jr. (15.6 ppg; second-team All-Big Ten), son of the former NBA player, senior Geo Baker (12.4 ppg; third-team All-Big Ten), and senior Caleb McConnell, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. The Knights are 8-2-1 ATS in their past 11 as underdogs.
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