Saturday, March 28, 2015

Notre Dame vs. Kentucky: Fuzzy Math Analysis


Here's my attempt to give Notre Dame fans some hope today as we await the 8:49 PM ET tip-off against #1 and undefeated Kentucky.  No one is giving us a chance tonight...

NOT SO FAST MY FRIENDS!

Here's a look at how Notre Dame and Kentucky played in games this season vs. common opponents -- the only true measure we have to compare these two teams outside of nine (9) "Big Mac" All-Americans vs. one (1) "Big Mac" All-American...

Enjoy!

OPPONENT:  NORTH CAROLINA
  • Kentucky beat North Carolina 84 - 70 /  @ home
  • Notre Dame beat North Carolina 71 - 70 / @ NC
  • Notre Dame beat North Carolina 90 - 82 / @ ACC (in North Carolina)

OPPONENT:  LOUISVILLE
  • Kentucky beat Louisville 58 - 50 / @ Louisville
  • Notre Dame beat Louisville 71 - 59 / @ Louisville

FUZZY MATH ANALYSIS:

So, here's my "fuzzy math" look at the match-up between Notre Dame and Kentucky using data from the games played this season against common opponents.

It should be noted that it's generally regarded that a home court provides a team with a FOUR POINT (3.7 to be precise) advantage.  So, if you take this "advantage" into consideration -- we've played these two teams quite evenly:
  • Kentucky was 10 points better than North Carolina
  • Notre Dame 8.5 points better than North Carolina (averaging the two games)
  • Kentucky was 12 points better than Louisville
  • Notre Dame was 16 points better than Louisville
  • In totality -- Kentucky was 22 points better -- Notre Dame was 24.5 points better

Now, there might be a couple of you out there who might not agree with my hypothesis -- but, hey you should give me some credit for the creativity in this argument for giving us Notre Dame fans hope tonight...

So, here's the bottom line: Notre Dame should be a TWO AND A HALF POINT favorite over Kentucky!

FYI:  Vegas has Kentucky an 11 point favorite -- I guess they don't use fuzzy math...

In the photo above -- that's Coach Brey telling Coach Calipari -- WE GOT YOU!