Mike Brey – Page 23 – Syndication Server

Notre Dame vs. Boston College: A Betting Preview

The underdog has covered each of the last four times Notre Dame and Boston College have met up.

Notre Dame basketball has been playing better of late aside from one awful afternoon at Duke and has worked their way to .500 in ACC play at 8-8. They haven’t however surpassed the .500 mark in conference play this season despite having a couple of chances to earlier this month before falling in road games against Duke and Virginia.

The Fighting Irish get another chance at getting over the .500 hump tonight as they’re in Boston College to take on an Eagles team who beat them back in December, 73-72 at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame is listed as a 4.5 point favorite over the Eagles tonight with the total set at 142. A successful Boston College money-line bet would pay +105.

Odds via BetMGM. Access USATODAY Sports Betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated February 26 at 4:05 p.m. ET

Boston College has had their own struggles this year as they enter tonight’s contest just 13-15 overall and 7-10 in conference play compared to Notre Dame’s 17-10 (8-8) mark.

Tip-off is set for 9:00 p.m. ET and can be seen on ACC Network tonight.

A couple of notes for tonight’s game – reminder none of these guarantee a damn thing:
-Notre Dame guard TJ Gibbs is averaging 16.5 points per game his last two games, most notably making 9 of 14 three point attempts in those contests.
-Notre Dame is 7-2 against the spread in their last nine games.
-The underdog has covered each of the last four times Notre Dame and Boston College have met up.
-The road team has covered in each of the last four meetings between Notre Dame and Boston College.

Want to get in on the action? Place your bet now at BetMGM.

-Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

Notre Dame – Latest on Bubble Watch

Win all four and the case gets stronger with a win that could potentially knock Florida State out of ACC contention for the regular season championship.

Notre Dame basketball picked up a much-needed win over Miami on Sunday, moving them to 17-10 overall on the season and perhaps more importantly, 8-8 in ACC play. With four games to go before the ACC Tournament it’d appear that a minimum of three wins are needed to even have a chance at an NCAA Tournament berth.

There are those that spend seemingly 52 weeks a year breaking down potential brackets with who is in and who is getting whatever seed. Let’s go to them to check on the latest on Notre Dame’s very faint bubble hopes:

USA TODAY –
Notre Dame considered, just not taken too seriously. The good news is that the Fighting Irish find themselves in the “considered” list here and not on the “on life support” list. However, a total of 11 teams are listed before Notre Dame finds it’s way on the list. Best way to describe things here are like in “Dumb and Dumber” and the whole “So you’re saying there’s a chance!” line.

Joe Lunardi – ESPN
The bad news here is Notre Dame does not get listed in either the “first four out” or “next four out”. The good news? We’ll let you know when we find it.

John Gasaway – ESPN
Gasaway goes conference by conference and lists who is safely in the dance and which teams have work to do. The good news is that Notre Dame doesn’t appear to have any work to do in his eyes. However the Fighting Irish basketball team isn’t listed in the “safely in” category, either.

My thoughts:

You absolutely can’t lose any game other than the Florida State contest in the remaining four regular season games. A win over Florida State would also go a long way but another bad loss against the likes of Boston College, Wake Forest or Virginia Tech would be disasterous.

Win all four and the case gets stronger with a win that could potentially knock Florida State out of ACC contention for the regular season championship.

If Notre Dame loses to Florida State but plays them close again, all hope probably isn’t lost but a strong showing in the ACC Tournament could at least aid Notre Dame’s hopes.

In short – just win. A lot. Doesn’t matter if its close or in blowout fashion, just win otherwise the hopes are going to be gone aside from the extremely unlikely chances that Notre Dame could win the ACC Tournament.

Notre Dame Basketball: Irish Hope to Beat BC

When Notre Dame saw its 13-game winning streak against Boston College get snapped Dec. 7 at the Purcell Pavilion, it dropped to 0-2 in ACC play. For some, that was the moment they knew this season would be a disappointment, and little since then has caused that narrative to waver. But the Irish (17-10, 8-8) can get a little revenge when they visit the Eagles (13-15, 7-10) on Wednesday.

T.J. Gibbs will be worth watching in this game and for the rest of the season. He’s shooting 49.7 percent from the field, 51.8 percent from 3-point range and 90.2 percent from the free-throw line. No ACC player since the 1996-97 season has had a 40-50-90 line, and Gibbs would be the fourth major conference player since that season to achieve it. The last to do it was William Buford of Ohio State in the 2010-11 season.

Gibbs also needs to play 27 minutes to reach 4,000 for his career. His current total of 3,973 ranks ninth in both Notre Dame history and in the Mike Brey era.

Watch: Notre Dame Keeps Season Alive vs. Miami and Mike Brey’s Postgame

Whatever happ ens with Notre Dame the rest of the season, at least it can say it tried its best to stay alive down the stretch in spite of long odds. Even if the miracle everyone wants doesn’t happen, the Irish have this win over Miami and the …

Whatever happ

ens with Notre Dame the rest of the season, at least it can say it tried its best to stay alive down the stretch in spite of long odds. Even if the miracle everyone wants doesn’t happen, the Irish have this win over Miami and the recent win over North Carolina to hang their hat on. Check out what happened:

Afterwards, Mike Brey explained how his players did their job:

Notre Dame Basketball: Hopeful vs. Hurricanes

Notre Dame has no room for error if it wants to pull off a surprise and receive an invite to March Madness. That will be a tall order without winning the ACC tournament, especially in a down year for the conference. The strive towards perfection the rest of the way begins Sunday against Miami. Not saying the chances of this scenario playing out are very good, but crazier things have happened.

After a thrilling last-second win over North Carolina, the Irish (16-10, 7-8) will look to build that momentum against the Hurricanes (14-12, 6-10), who have four of the programs’ past five meetings. Notre Dame has won only two of the seven matchups since the programs became ACC rivals.

The Irish on pace to lead their conference in fewest fouls committed for the ninth time in the past 10 times, but if the season ended today, their 12.5 fouls a game would be well ahead of the 13.1 average they accumulated during the 2017-18 season. In short, Mike Brey’s team has exceeded its reputation in one of the areas it has excelled in for the past decade.

Watch: Notre Dame’s Thrilling Win Over North Carolina and Mike Brey’s Postgame

One of Notre Dame’s most thrilling games of the season came down to the wire. The Irish haven’t done well in close contests this year, but Monday proved to be the exception and not the rule. See how it went down: Mike Brey shared his thoughts …

Mike Brey shared his thoughts afterward:

USA TODAY’s Latest Bracketology Not Giving Up on Notre Dame Yet

One outlet that hasn’t given up on Notre Dame’s NCAA Tournament chances quite yet is the USA TODAY.

After the then No. 7 Duke Blue Devils dismantled Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon I think most Fighting Irish fans who hadn’t already, began coming to grips that this team is probably headed to the NIT.

Considering the injuries, departures and lack of a bench that’s not a terrible accomplishment. Obviously the goals are stated higher than that but all things considered this has been an impressive team in terms of what they’ve accomplished despite often being over-matched in talent.

One outlet that hasn’t given up on Notre Dame’s NCAA Tournament chances quite yet is the USA TODAY.

The outlet released their latest “Bracketology” on Monday and Notre Dame isn’t even listed on “life support” for their chances yet. They’re still listed in the category “Others considered for at-large bid”.

I’m a little surprised but there is still a lot ahead for Notre Dame. Most importantly that begins in a couple of hours when a poor North Carolina teams comes to town in an absolute must-win for the Fighting Irish.

Following the Tar Heels tonight are dates with Miami, Boston College and Wake Forest which are all very winnable before a tough one on March 4 when Florida State visits South Bend. The regular season concludes March 7 then as the Irish host Virginia Tech.

IF – and I can’t state that enough – IF — Notre Dame has a strong showing of at least 4-2 and more likely 5-1 in these next six, they’ll perhaps finish above .500 in conference play and approach the 20 win mark if not surpass it with an alright showing in the ACC Tournament.

This isn’t a team that’s by any means built to go on a deep tournament run and heck, it’s going to still take a lot of work to get there, but sign me up for even still being seen as having a chance at this point because I didn’t think there was a snowball’s chance in hell of that a few short weeks ago.

Now go beat Carolina.

Notre Dame/North Carolina: Irish a Home Favorite

For what it’s worth (probably very little), Notre Dame has covered just once in their last eight games played on a Monday.

I know North Carolina is struggling this season and that Roy Williams pretty much told his team earlier this year that they were painful to watch, awful and every other negative adjective you could think.

I also know that that Tar Heels are just 9-15 since their opening night win over the Fighting Irish in November and have struggled mightily even with Cole Anthony (19.3 ppg) returning to the lineup.

But it’s still a rare day, or at least feels like one when Notre Dame is favored over North Carolina in basketball and that’s exactly what we have in the case of Monday night’s game.

Notre Dame is listed as a 2.5 point favorite over the Tar Heels tonight with the total set at 147.5. A successful North Carolina money-line bet would pay +105.

Odds via BetMGM. Access USATODAY Sports Betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated February 17 at 11:15 a.m. ET

North Carolina defeated Notre Dame 76-65 to open the season on November 6 but has since struggled to a 10-15 overall record and a 3-11 ACC record, good for last place in the conference.

Notre Dame meanwhile enters 15-10 overall, 6-8 in conference and 12-3 on their home court this season.

Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPN tonight.

For what it’s worth (probably very little), Notre Dame has covered just once in their last eight games played on a Monday.

Want to get in on the action? Place your bet now at BetMGM.

-Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

No. 7 Duke vs. Notre Dame Betting Info: Blue Devils Double Digit Favorite

Notre Dame lost a heartbreaker last time out at Virginia but have covered the spread in their last six outings.

Notre Dame wraps up their three road games in seven days stretch Saturday afternoon as they’re in Durham, North Carolina to take on No. 7 Duke.

The Fighting Irish enter the contest clinging to NCAA Tournament hopes that are built heavily on schedule relief that comes after Saturday’s trip to Cameron Indoor Arena.

No. 7 Duke is listed as of Saturday morning as a 12.5 point favorite and the total sits at 151.5 – up slightly from Notre Dame’s latest outing at Virginia that saw 99 total points scored in 45 minutes.

If you’d like to bet Notre Dame on the money-line Saturday, a winning bet pays at +625.

Odds via BetMGM. Access USATODAY Sports Betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated February 15 at 9:10 a.m. ET

Notre Dame heads to Duke at 15-9 overall, 6-7 in ACC play which has them seventh in the conference. The Irish have also gone 3-5 in true road contests.

No. 7 Duke enters Saturday at 21-3 overall and 11-2 both in the ACC and at Cameron. The conference mark has them a half game behind No. 5 Louisville for the ACC lead.

Notre Dame lost a heartbreaker last time out at Virginia but have covered the spread in their last six outings.

Tip-off is set for 4 p.m ET at Duke today and can be seen on ESPN.

Want to get in on the action? Place your bet now at BetMGM.

-Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

Notre Dame Basketball: USA TODAY Considers Irish for Tournament Bid

Notre Dame didn’t make the projected dance, nor were they in the “first four out” but they weren’t left for dead, either.

Two weeks ago Notre Dame basketball was sitting at just 11-8 and 2-6 in a bad ACC. Despite a valiant effort at Florida State, things appeared headed for disaster.

Instead Notre Dame has taken advantage of the weak part of their schedule, won four straight ACC games and are now 15-8/6-6.

It’s not worthy of a banner but it’s been fun to see for those who have followed this team since late fall.

Perhaps the most-surprising part of this is that in their latest NCAA Tournament projection, the USA TODAY is, well, they’re saying there’s a chance!

Notre Dame didn’t make the projected dance, nor were they in the “first four out” but they weren’t left for dead, either.

Others considered for at-large bid (in no particular order): Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth, Syracuse, St. Johns, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Tulsa, SMU, TCU, Alabama, South Carolina, Oregon State, Saint Louis, Clemson, UNC-Greensboro, Utah, Furman,Texas, Utah State, Providence.

That’s how Notre Dame’s tournament chances were worded.

“Considered for at-large bid”

I don’t think they make “One Shining Moment” montages for being considered for an at-large bid but compared to where things were even a couple short weeks ago, you’ll take it if you’re a Notre Dame fan.

And you’ll probably think to yourself about what might have been had things ended just a hair different against Indiana, Boston College, Syracuse II or Florida State.

Mike Brey and Notre Dame try and improve their consideration Tuesday night when they are in Virginia to take on the defending national champion Cavaliers.