The college basketball season gets underway on Sunday in spectacular fashion as the Villanova Wildcats face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Rome. Two Catholic schools getting things started in the land of the Pope. This is a men’s and women’s doubleheader too, and this game gets going a day ahead of the main card. Villanova is a program that is on the rise, making the NCAA tournament last year, and likely improving this year. Notre Dame is a team struggling near the bottom of the ACC, and not much seems to have changed.
Kevin Willard got off to a strong start in his first season at the helm of Villanova. The knock on this team was that they were soft and often got out-physicaled by the better teams. With a lot of portal additions this year, the Wildcats should have a much bigger and tougher front court, and their starting five should have a lot of talent. There is depth here too, and this team can compete with the best teams in the Big East. Notre Dame is a program going in the other direction. This team lost five of its top six scorers, and the one who returns is the son of the coach. The rest of this roster is filled out with young players or mid-tier transfers. There isn’t a lot splashy here, and it would be a surprise to see them climb far in the ACC standings. I like this Villanova team early in the season, so I’ll take them to cover in the season opener.
Villanova vs Notre Dame Prediction: Villanova -7.5 (-110) available at the time of publishing. Playable to -9.5.
