AAA's VERY EARLY ACC "ASSASSIN!" (PLAYING w/ HOUSE MONEY!)
(NCAAB) Notre Dame vs. Pittsburgh,
Point Spread: 5.50 | -106.00 Pittsburgh (Home)
Result: Win
This is an 8* ASSASSIN on Pittsburgh.

While I do in fact believe the outright win isn't out of the question here, I will in the end recommend grabbing as many points as you can as I expect the home side will take the Irish down to the wire and at the very least, sneak in through the back door with what I deem to be a healthy amount of points afforded to it in this one. There's no question that Notre Dame is playing at a very high level right now, but after five straight wins, I think the team has a bit of a mental letdown here today, the exact opportunity that the Panthers (and us!), can take advantage of. It's not hard to imagine the Fighting Irish coming in a bit complacent after rallying from a 10-point deficit to beat No. 4 Duke 77-73 on Wednesday. Also note, while ND has won its first four conference road games for the first time in school history, only one has been decided by more than three points. Certainly Pittsburgh won't be intimidated today, the last time these teams met the Panthers would score the 85-81 OT win on March 1st. Pittsburgh has lost three in a row and is coming off a 70-67 OT loss at Virginia Tech, but as I always like to say: "desperation breeds motivation." I played UCLA on Tuesday, a 7-point dog which would go on to score the 10-point outright upset over Utah and I think that a similar such performance is in the cards today. Note that Notre Dame is just 4-5 ATS this year vs. good defensive teams which allow 64 points or less per contest, while Pittsburgh is 8-4 ATS this season vs. schools with winning records. In my opinion, the situation, the numbers and the trends do all indeed point to the PANTHERS as the savvy move in this one.

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