Pittsburgh Panthers at Notre Dame Fighting Irish Betting Odds

Opening Line: Pitt +1 / Notre Dame -1 O/U 137.5

Time: 7 PM EST Wednesday February 24, 2010 on ESPN2

Tonight in a Big East match up the Notre Dame Fighting Irish host the 16th ranked Pittsburgh Panthers. The Irish are 2 games under .500 in conference play and they have lost 3 in a row and are really on the bubble, as they really need to win this game. Even though they are at home they will likely not have leading scorer and rebounder Luke Harangody (24.1 ppg 10 rpg), who has a knee injury and could not practice Monday.

Pitt will be going to the NCAA tournament and after losing 4 of 5 around a month ago they are currently on a 5 game winning streak including beating both Villanova and West Virginia, who are both ranked in the top 10.

This season Notre Dame is 15-3 at home and 10-10-1 ATS and Pitt is 5-3 on the road and 14-8-2 ATS.

In their last games the Irish lost to Louisville 91-89 in OT last Wednesday night while the Panthers beat Villanova 70-65 on Sunday.

Pitt has won 6 of their last 7 games against Notre Dame.

With Harangody out F Tim Abromaitis (17.3 ppg) will have to take up the scoring and rebounding slack. Without Harangody for the last 2 games Abromaitis has averaged 26.5 ppg.

Fellow Irish F Tyrone Nash (7.9 ppg 5.3 rpg) has to help Abromaitis in the scoring department and on the boards.

Pitt is led by their stellar backcourt that has 3 guards that are averaging in double figures led by Ashton Gibbs (16.4 ppg).

The Fighting Irish will have to play good perimeter defense tonight and not allow the Panthers' guards to have open looks from deep.

Notre Dame wins with offense, as they are averaging just under 80 ppg and they have to figure out how to score on a Pitt D that leads the Big East only allowing an average of 61.4 ppg.

Notre Dame is without their big star and if they lose this game the best they can do in the Big East is go .500 with 3 remaining games after this one. However, their next 3 games are all against Big East teams that have better conference records than Notre Dame.

Pitt is 12-3-1 ATS in their last 16 games, 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games as a road underdog, and has an Under record if 4-1 in their last 5 road games.

Notre Dame is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 home games, # 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 games as a favorite, and has an Over record of 7-2 in their last 9 games as a home favorite.

In the last 5 meetings between these 2 teams the total has gone Over.

Our Selection : Interesting to see this line open up 136.5 and get bet up to 138.5. The Panthers haven't scored over 67 points on the road in their last 5 conference games and have in fact scored 61 or fewer in their last 4. It's not just about their lack of scoring. They have only allowed 51, 70, 70, 64 and 57 points for a points per game average of 62.4. Sure you can make an argument about the Fighting Irish's defense, or lack of. However, the numbers show a different story as of late with Notre Dame allowing 69 or fewer points in their last 3 home games. Toss in that forward L. Harangody (24.1 PPG) will likely miss this game and it becomes an easy call for us. Take under 138.5 points