{"id":20316,"date":"2011-12-17T04:00:45","date_gmt":"2011-12-17T09:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20316"},"modified":"2011-12-16T21:19:57","modified_gmt":"2011-12-17T02:19:57","slug":"close-the-gap-crossroads-classic-notre-dame-fighting-irish-vs-indiana-hoosiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/close-the-gap-crossroads-classic-notre-dame-fighting-irish-vs-indiana-hoosiers-20316\/","title":{"rendered":"Close the Gap Crossroads Classic: Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Indiana Hoosiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. No. 20 Indiana Hoosiers
\nSaturday, 12\/17\/11, 4:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Indiana -8.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Indiana -9
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 141
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 141
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Indiana Hoosiers will take the court for the first time after upsetting the Kentucky Wildcats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notre Dame will battle in-state rival Indiana on Saturday in Indianapolis inside the Conseco Fieldhouse.\u00a0 This will be the ninth meeting between the two programs in Indianapolis, with the Irish coming in with a 2-6 mark in such contests.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to this weekend,\u201d commented Irish guard Joey Brooks.\u00a0 \u201cI feel like we\u2019re getting better.\u201d\u00a0 The team comes in on a two-game winning streak, which includes a 65-47 win over Dartmouth as 18-point favorites.\u00a0 Notre Dame is 0-3 ATS in neutral court contests this year, while the \u2018under\u2019 is 12-5 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Fighting Irish shouldn\u2019t be overlooked in this matchup due to tallying a 61-14 record during the Mike Brey era.\u00a0 Notre Dame doesn\u2019t have a senior in its starting five, as sophomore guard Eric Atkins leads the team in averaging 13.9 points per game.\u00a0 It\u2019s still important to note that the program is the only one in the country to have at least six players score at least 20 points this season.\u00a0 Forward Tim Abromaitis was expected to be the star, but he\u2019s out for the season due to a knee injury.<\/p>\n

Indiana captured a thrilling 73-72 win over the Kentucky Wildcats as 5.5-point home underdogs last Saturday, as the team comes in shooting 51.2 percent from the field and 45.8 percent from three-point range.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want them to put it behind them,\u201d commented head coach Tom Crean.\u00a0 \u201cI want them to build on it.\u201d\u00a0 Freshman forward Cody Zeller is certainly the player to watch in this affair, being named the Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Week three times, ranking 10th nationally in scoring for first-year players.\u00a0 Indiana is 5-10 ATS in December the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Hoosiers have been getting great contributions from the bench, including sophomore Will Sheehey, who is averaging 11.6 points per game. Everyone around the program is hoping that a full week was a enough time to get over beating a No. 1 team for the first time since the 2002 NCAA Tournament.\u00a0 Indiana shot 60 percent from beyond the arc against one of the best defenses in college basketball.\u00a0 Creating mistakes on the defensive end is going to be key in this game, especially with the squad averaging 24.2 points per game off of turnovers.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Irish due to the underdog being 4-0 ATS in the last four meetings, while the Hoosiers are 0-4 ATS on a neutral floor.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. No. 20 Indiana Hoosiers Saturday, 12\/17\/11, 4:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2 Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Indiana -8.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Indiana -9 Opening Total:\u00a0 141 Current Total:\u00a0 141 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Notre Dame will battle in-state rival Indiana on Saturday in Indianapolis inside the Conseco Fieldhouse.\u00a0 This will be the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[5922,4396,6160,2485,5806,1311,5807,4114],"class_list":["post-20316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-cody-zeller","tag-conseco-fieldhouse","tag-eric-atkins","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-mike-brey","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-tim-abromaitis","tag-tom-crean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20318,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20316\/revisions\/20318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}