Notre Dame Fighting Irish at West Virginia Mountaineers, WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, WV
Saturday, February 19, 2011, 1:00 pm Eastern, TV: CBS
Opening Line: West Virginia -3.5
Current Line: West Virginia -4
Opening Total: 131.5
Current Total: 130.5
Money Line: West Virginia -180 / Notre Dame +160
The eighth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (21-4, 10-3 Big East) visit the West Virginia Mountaineers (16-9, 7-6) on Saturday as the hottest team in the conference, riding a seven-game winning streak. With #9 Georgetown falling 78-70 at #13 Connecticut on Wednesday, Notre Dame moved two games ahead of four other league teams in the loss column for second place behind #4 Pittsburgh and three games in front of West Virginia (-4).
The Mountaineers have dropped three of their last four games and could certainly use a big win here at home to avoid inching closer to the .500 mark in Big East play. They must face four teams ranked in the Top 20 in their last five games but are fortunate to play three of them at home, where they are 10-2 this season. The team’s only two home losses came against the Panthers on February 7 and St. John’s to open the conference schedule.
West Virginia is coming off a 63-52 loss at Syracuse on Monday, scoring just 22 points in the second half after taking a 30-26 halftime lead. Casey Mitchell did his best to keep the Mountaineers in the game, sinking 7 of his 8 baskets from beyond the 3-point arc en route to 23 points. John Flowers was the only other Mountaineer to score in double figures with 10 points.
While West Virginia has struggled lately in failing to cover its last four games, the Fighting Irish have gone an impressive 6-1 against the spread in winning their past seven. Notre Dame’s only non-cover during that stretch came in a 76-69 home win over Rutgers on February 6. The Irish have won their past two games since then by a combined 33 points, including a 78-55 rout of South Florida on the road last Saturday. They trailed the Bulls 3-2 and then scored 22 points in a row to help build a 41-17 halftime lead.
Notre Dame has won its last three road games both straight-up and ATS since losing its first three games away from home by an average of more than 17 points. The home team has won the last seven meetings in the series with the Mountaineers along with nine of the past 10. The UNDER has cashed in each of the last 10 games between the teams along with six of West Virginia’s last eight games overall. However, the OVER is 4-0 in the last four overall for the Irish.
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