Midwest Region final: No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 1 Kentucky (-11) | 8:49 p.m. ET, TBS
For the Fighting Irish to have a chance, they're going to have to replicate what they did vs. Wichita State. Notre Dame played perhaps its most beautiful game of the season, working the passing lanes and setting up cuts, gives-backs and alley-oops that put this program into the Elite Eight for the first time since the '70s. Jerian Grant, who could be a lottery pick, set an Irish NCAA Tournament record with 11 assists. He and Pat Connaughton played 40 minutes. Dynamo Demetrius Jackson played 39. Expect the same Saturday night.
Kentucky? Here's the scary thing. UK tied a Sweet 16 record for margin of victory (39 points), and yet the player who will be drafted highest on this team, Karl-Anthony Towns, didn't even score a field goal. There's no reason to believe Kentucky won't win this game. UK has an offense nearly as efficient as Notre Dame's, and it has bigger players and guards who are just as big and quick. The Irish can win, but it's going to take something that hasn't happened yet this season: an awful Kentucky performance paired with its opponent putting together a near-complete game.
And one more thing to watch: Even though Notre Dame can score and move, it's probably going to opt to go to a "burn" offense, meaning it will bleed clock and try to slow the game down. If it does that, it will induce UK into a half-court game. By reducing the number of possessions, field-goal percentage becomes all the more vital.
