2011 Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament – Louisville Cardinals vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
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Louisville vs. Notre Dame Matchup
Date/Time: Friday, March 11 9:25 p.m. (ET)
Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York City
Broadcast: ESPN
Cardinals vs. Irish lines by Bookmaker.com
Pointspread: ND -1
Over/Under: 137.5
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Things are heating up in the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament and could boil over in tonight’s semi-finals at Madison Square Garden when the No.3 seed Louisville Cardinals square-off against the No.2 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Tip-off is set for 9:25 p.m. and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Louisville used its double-bye in the first two rounds of this tournament to its full advantage with an 81-56 pasting of No.11 seed Marquette as a 3 ½-point favorite in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Cardinals earned the third seed by compiling a 12-6 straight-up record in the Big East and finished the regular season 23-8 SU (17-10-1 against the spread).
Senior guard Preston Knowles led a trio of Louisville players scoring in double-figures against the Golden Eagles with a game-high 15 points which matched his season average of 14.5 points a game. Junior forward Terrence Jennings added 12 points while junior guard Chris Smith had a huge game under the boards with game-high 11 rebounds.
Notre Dame has put itself in prime position to nail down a No.1 seed for next week’s NCAA Tournament with a dominating 89-51 win over No.7 seed Cincinnati as a 2 ½-point favorite combined with Pittsburgh’s loss to Connecticut in yesterday’s quarterfinals. It was the Irish’s 26th win this season against just five losses. 
Ben Hansbrough and Tim Abromaitis lead a team of five senior starters that have the necessary talent and experience to not only win this tournament, but to possibly bring home a national title to South Bend. Hansbrough led the way against the Bearcats with a game-high 23 points and Carleton Scott added 18 points in the winning effort.
The Irish knocked-off Louisville 89-79 in overtime on Feb.9 as a 4 ½-point home favorite during the regular season and should open as a slight favorite this time around as well. With the lure of a top seed in the Big Dance hanging in the balance, stick with the Irish to pull out the win in another thriller.
Trends:
Under is 18-5 in NOTRE last 23 neutral site games.
Over is 7-2-1 in NOTRE last 10 overall.
Over is 7-2-1 in NOTRE last 10 vs. Big East.
The Pick: Notre Dame 77-74
