The Notre Dame Fighting Irish take on the Marquette Golden Eagles. Check out our college basketball odds series for our Notre Dame Marquette prediction and pick. Find how to watch Notre Dame Marquette.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are starting over this season. After the long and generally successful tenure of former coach Mike Brey, the Irish begin a new chapter of their basketball existence under Micah Shrewsberry, who came to South Bend from Penn State, where he led the Nittany Lions to the 2023 NCAA Tournament and a first-round victory. Winning NCAA Tournament games at Penn State is not easy to do, so Shrewsberry was rightly in demand in the coaching carousel. Notre Dame seized the chance to bring him aboard. Shrewsberry is known in the college basketball coaching industry as a great X-and-O offensive coach who draws up clever set plays and knows how to get his scorers open for good opportunities. That skill is always valuable, but in Year 1 at Notre Dame, its value will be minimized by the reality that Shrewsberry doesn't have the roster he needs to be competitive in the top tier of the ACC. This is a transitional season without the quality or depth Notre Dame was accustomed to in the prime years of Brey's tenure, which delivered an Elite Eight run and an ACC Tournament championship to the Irish. This is a season in which growing pains will have to be endured and absorbed.
Marquette looks like a national championship contender and a legitimate Final Four threat. The Golden Eagles have lost twice this season, to Wisconsin and Purdue, but they have also won a lot of high-end games under coach Shaka Smart. They have defeated Kansas, UCLA, Illinois, and most recently Texas. That's a large batch of high-end wins, more than most teams in the country through five weeks of play. The schedule has been absolutely brutal, and yet MU is 8-2. That looks really good on a nitty-gritty report, and we haven't even begun to get into Big East Conference play, where Marquette will face UConn and Creighton and other highly competitive teams in what promises to be a thrilling league race. Marquette has been tested a lot and has usually aced the exam.
Here are the Notre Dame-Marquette College Basketball odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
College Basketball Odds: Notre Dame-Marquette Odds
Notre Dame Fighting Irish: +20.5 (-104)
Marquette Golden Eagles: -20.5 (-118)
Over: 138.5 (-115)
Under: 138.5 (-105)
How To Watch Notre Dame vs Marquette
Time: 9:00 pm ET / 6:00 pm PT
TV: Fox
Stream: fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Why Notre Dame Could Cover the Spread
The spread is very large. Marquette just played a strong game against Texas and might be a little mentally fatigued after that win over the Longhorns. Marquette has played so many big games against formidable opposition this season that we are bound to see a game in which the Golden Eagles don't play with maximum energy or intensity. This is the reality of sports: Not all games are played with the same very high level of juice and passion. There will be games when teams just try to grind through it. This could be just such a game for Marquette.
Why Marquette Could Cover the Spread
The gulf between Marquette and Notre Dame is vast. Marquette beat Texas by 21, and Texas is miles better than Notre Dame. Marquette beat Kansas, widely viewed as a top-10 team, by 14 points. If Marquette can beat those kinds of teams by double-digit margins, it should be able to beat Notre Dame by 30.
Final Notre Dame-Marquette Prediction & Pick
Marquette is 30 to 35 points better than Notre Dame, but after beating Texas and making it through a tough part of the schedule, the Golden Eagles might relax. Stay away from this game and consider a live play.
Final Notre Dame-Marquette Prediction & Pick: Marquette -20.5
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