Georgetown vs. Notre Dame Picks

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NCAA Basketball Pick – January 21st

A four-pack of games on ESPN will continue for college basketball betting fans on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in South Bend, where the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will square off with the Georgetown Hoyas in a crucial clash in the Big East.

The Hoyas have been in some trouble over the course of the last few games without F Greg Whittington, and those struggles are really starting to show. Whittington was the second leading scorer on the team. Against the South Florida Bulls, two players, including leading scorer F Otto Porter, combined to score all but 21 points, and that just isn’t going to cut it against a team like Notre Dame that has the ability to beat you in so many different ways. The Hoyas do still have a Top 10 defense in the country, but this offense has been dreadful all season long, and there are just no two ways around it. Georgetown needs to figure this out and figure it out soon, or it is going to find itself on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble as we head down the stretch of the season.

Notre Dame hasn’t exactly been in fine form either. At 15-3, one would figure that this would be a team with Final Four aspirations. Instead, we’re really wondering. Over the course of these last four games, the squad has failed to score even 70 points in any of the outings, and in that mix are loss to the Connecticut Huskies (as 8 ½-point favorites) and the St. John’s Red Storm (as seven-point favorites). The club also just barely escaped a game from the Rutgers Scarlet Knights here in South Bend over the weekend. The difference here is that the talent is just superior for the Irish. G Eric Atkins and G Jerian Grant have perhaps underachieved over the course of the last few games, but they are still combining for 24.7 points and 12.1 assists per game. Neither one turns the ball over even three times per game either, a real luxury to have out of guards that play 35+ minutes seemingly every single night. F Jack Cooley is averaging 15.1 points and 10.7 boards, making him one of the few in the nation averaging a double-double per game this year in the country.

Prediction:

The Fighting Irish had won and covered three straight in this series before going to DC last year to take on the Hoyas. Georgetown hasn’t won a game here in South Bend since 2006, and even that came in overtime in thrilling fashion. This game won’t be nearly as notable. Notre Dame is set to romp a team that just has no offense at the moment. Notre Dame 69 – Georgetown 57