Notre Dame Basketball Preview: Notre Dame vs. Michigan State

The Notre Dame basketball program faces a Top 5 battle on Thursday. Tomorrow, the Irish take on Michigan State in the Breslin Center at 7:00 p.m.

Backcourt

Sophomore Miles Bridges highlights the backcourt. The former 5-star recruit is averaging 15.2 points per game. He also averages 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per contest.

He is a difficult matchup for Notre Dame. At 6’7″, Bridges is extremely physical but still quite athletic. Who does Mike Brey put in his way? Rex Pflueger typically draws the teams best offensive player. However, he is likely too small for Bridges. This means there might be an All-American matchup between Bonzie Colson and Bridges.

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Joshua Langford and Cassius Winston start in the backcourt along with Bridges. Langford averages 13.7 points per contest. Winston scores an average of 12.2 points per game.

Guards Lourawis Nairn Jr. and Matt McQuaid come off the bench for the Spartans. These two players contribute significant minutes for Michigan State. Both played more than 20 minutes against North Carolina.

Frontcourt

Freshman Jaren Jackson Jr. from Carmel, Indiana and Sophomore Nick Ward start in the frontcourt. Michigan State’s young and talented backcourt both average in the double-digits. Jackson scores 10 points per contest. Ward averages 13.8 points per contest.

Ben Carter, Gavin Schilling and Xavier Tillman round out the rotation for the Irish.

Bottom Line

Notre Dame is the more experienced team but not by a wide margin. The majority of Spartans who contribute are Freshman and Sophomores. Also, it is probably fair to say that Notre Dame is not as talented as the Spartans. Miles Bridges is an excellent example of the talent.

On paper, the Irish and Spartans are very similar. Notre Dame is currently averaging 84.5 points while yielding 60.2 points per contest. Michigan State is scoring 80.8 and giving up 63.0 points per game.

Notre Dame enters as a 6-point underdog. This is a great opportunity for the Notre Dame basketball program to show the country what everyone in South Bend already knows: the Irish are one of the best teams in the country.