Rutgers Scarlet Knights vs Notre Dame Fighting Irish Betting Preview/Prop Pick

The First Four will continue on Wednesday night, and there will be a battle of two teams from Power 5 Conferences. It will be the Rutgers Scarlet Knights taking on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and the winner gets a shot at Alabama. 

Rutgers is back in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, and Rutgers can be a dangerous team. The Scarlet Knights went 18-13 during the regular season but were the number 4 seed in the Big Ten Conference Tournament. 

Notre Dame brings a 22-10 record into the NCAA Tournament, and they have snapped a tournament-less drought. The Fighting Irish went 3-2 to finish the year, but they had some big games along the way. 

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are slim one-point betting favorites over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in this First Four matchup. 

Rutgers Can Really Defend

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are a physical team, and they are also a team that loves to defend. Rutgers is comfortable winning games in the 60s, and they will use their length and athleticism to slow this game down. 

On the offensive end of the floor, Ron Harper Jr. leads the way for the Scarlet Knights. Harper Jr. is scoring close to 16 points per game on the year, but he has been known to make plenty of big shots during his career. 

The Scarlet Knights don’t always shoot the ball extremely well, and that could create some issues in this game. 

Notre Dame Finding Some Offense

This isn’t a Notre Dame team that has an outstanding player on the roster, but Mike Brey has a team full of scorers. The Fighting Irish have been shooting the ball well of late, and they have scored at least 78 points in four of their last five games.

Guards Blake Wesley and Prentiss Hubb set the tone for this Notre Dame team, and they will have to play well on Wednesday night. Wesley leads the team with 14.6 points per game, and Hubb is dishing out four assists per game. 

Notre Dame did allow 87 points to Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament, and that defense will have to be much better in this matchup. 

Rutgers Rolls to Victory

There does not appear to be much separation between Rutgers and Notre Dame at all, and each team has been battle-tested during the season. This should be a relatively low-scoring game, and that should keep the final score relatively close for all 40 minutes.

Notre Dame is going to have to shoot the ball really well to win this game, and that just doesn’t happen often against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights have length at every position, and they are also a team that loves to buckle down and get stops. 

Expect this game to go down to the final few possessions, but it will be Rutgers that comes up with all of the important plays late. The Rutgers Scarlet Knights will slide past the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and into the First Round on Thursday.

Prop Pick

Notre Dame (-115) UNDER 66.5 Points

Rutgers is allowing 65.2 points per game on defense, which ranks No. 62 in the nation, while holding teams to 41.2 percent shooting from the field, which also ranks No. 62. Scores have gone UNDER in four of the Scarlet Knights’ last five games overall.

With Dunkel predicting a Rutgers victory by the score of 63-60, take the Fighting Irish (-115) to finish UNDER their Vegas team total of 66.5 points against the Scarlet Knights.

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