Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Kentucky Wildcats: Live Game Thread

Welcome to the Elite Eight game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Kentucky Wildcats. This is Kentucky’s fifth Elite Eight in six seasons under John Calipari, and three of the previous four have resulted in Kentucky moving on to the Final Four. Will this be the fourth? We’ll have to wait to find out.

Tonights game will be interesting in the sense that this will be the most efficient offense Kentucky has faced all season. This has to give the Irish a puncher’s chance, and they are one of the best three-point shooting teams in the nation and execute their offense very well.

But Kentucky is the best defensive team in the nation, and Notre Dame’s defense is simply not very good. That’s going to matter.

Game Particulars

See the full preview at UKAthletics.com.

Essentials for victory

• Guard the three — Kentucky must force Notre Dame to put the ball on the floor. If they give up a bunch of open threes, this could become a very competitive game indeed.

• Attack on defense — Notre Dame is a very good ballhandling team, but forcing turnovers from the Irish will really help Kentucky’s cause.

• Offensive rebound — Notre Dame is a very poor rebounding team, and Kentucky must leverage that fact to increase their offensive efficiency.

• Attack the rim — Notre Dame simply doesn’t foul much, so it will be very interesting to see how they plan to stop the Wildcats guards when they attack the rim.

• Do not put Notre Dame on the line — Putting Notre Dame on the line is not a good idea. They shoot the ball very well from the line.

This game could go one of two ways — Notre Dame shoots lights-out and it becomes a real ball game, or Kentucky forces a low percentage from Notre Dame and it is a comfortable victory for the Wildcats. We may see a little bit of both, but in offense-defense matchups, I always like the better defensive team unless the offensive mismatch is very great. It isn’t great at all in this one.

Go, ‘Cats