The final weekend of January means college basketball fans are starting to dream of March tournament days coming soon. Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024 promises bettors a taste of that action as two ranked teams will face off with plenty on the line between them.
The No. 15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish are in Storrs to take on the eighth-ranked Connecticut Huskies. Both teams are making adjustments on the fly after suffering some disappointing injury news and those adjustments are something that bettors should take note of.
Notre Dame at UConn details
This is the only game of the day Saturday that features currently ranked opponents playing each other. The national television audience should make markets on this contest abundantly available at legal North American online sportsbooks.
- Tip-off: 8 p.m. ET, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024
- Venue: Gampel Pavillion, Storrs, Connecticut
- Broadcast: FOX
- Previous matchup: Dec. 4, 2022, at Notre Deame, 74-60 Fighting Irish win
- Last 5 games: Connecticut WWWWW, Notre Dame WWWWL
- Average points for: Connecticut 84.4, Notre Dame 83.3
- Average points against: Connecticut 58.8, Notre Dame 61.1
- Connecticut record: 17-3 overall, 8-0 at home, 7-3 non-conference
- Notre Dame record: 14-4 overall, 6-1 on the road, 9-1 non-conference
Although these teams do not belong to the same conference, they have a rich history of fierce competition between talented rosters. That doesn’t mean the all-time series is competitive, however. In fact, UConn holds a 38-14 lead in the series overall.
That includes winning 23 of 26 home games in the series so far. The Huskies have won seven of the last 10 regardless of venue and eight of the last 10 true home games. Both of these teams have recently seen their rosters decline, however.
Connecticut has lost Ayanna Patterson for the rest of the season while Notre Dame will be without Emma Risch for the rest of 2023-24 as well. Risch had averaged nearly five points and more than three rebounds in almost 13 minutes per game. Patterson had yet to appear on the court for UConn this season.
Amid those losses, sportsbooks have the Huskies as a solid favorite with spreads sitting around 13 points. A more consensus total exists at 147.5 points on this contest.
Handicapping Notre Dame at UConn
While the recent injury news has a bigger impact on the Fighting Irish than Connecticut, Risch’s absence is probably not a big reason why sportsbooks have the Huskies as such a favorite for Saturday night. A bigger reason for that is UConn’s offensive efficiency compared with Notre Dame’s relative inability to slow down opponents.
The Huskies come in with the second-best overall shooting percentage in the country including a 10th-best 38.8% from 3-point range. Furthermore, only two teams in the nation average more assists per game than UConn.
While the Fighting Irish’s defensive statistics are nothing to rave about, they do have better rebounding averages than the Huskies. Additionally, some of Notre Dame’s offensive numbers are comparable to UConn’s.
If this game turns into a track meet, the spread on the Irish becomes interesting as they probably have enough offensive firepower to stay within 13 points. In that instance, though, the Over becomes even more attractive for bettors.
The Huskies would be more comfortable slowing the pace than Notre Dame simply based on the average shot volumes for both teams. Either way, this could be the next talent showcase in a series history full of great names.
