BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Notre Dame @ South Florida

February 3, 2007


While much of the sports world has its eyes on south Florida, Notre Dame heads to central Florida to meet South Florida. The Irish beat the South Florida Bulls two weeks ago 82-58 in South Bend. Since that loss, the Bulls have looked much better, especially at home, beating Rutgers by 22 points and suffering a heart-breking buzzer-beating loss to Marquette, 70-68, last weekend.

Notre Dame rebounded from their road loss to St. John's with a couple impressive wins over Villanova and Syracuse their last two games out. The win over Syracuse was accomplished without the services of Rob Kurz and was also their first Big East road win in four tries. The Irish can not afford to take their trip to sunny Florida like a vacation, they would be in trouble.

Obviously, the Irish are the better and deeper team. The Bulls are improving as they are getting mid-year additions such as Jesus Verdejo, Kentrell Gransberry and Chris Howard acclimated to playing together with Melvin Buckley, McHugh Mattis, Solomon Bozeman and Melvyn Richardson. The Bulls also have Chris Capko and Abe Saaka available, so they finally have depth.

However, this looks to be Notre Dame's year, finally! The Irish are pulling all the right strings and have everyone playing their roles to near perfection. With five players all capable and ready to score at all times on the floor, this Notre Dame team is playing hard and playing together. This will be a tougher game than the first one, but this is a tougher Notre Dame team than what we have seen in the past.

NBE Blogger Prediction: Notre Dame 75 South Florida 65