As Feast Week rolls on, the nightcap game in Las Vegas features the Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs the Houston Cougars. Houston had a tough battle with Alabama on Tuesday, ultimately dropping the game by 5 points. The Irish went to overtime before losing to Rutgers by a point. The teams will play again on Thursday also, but this is more of a group play event than a tournament, so who they will face is still TBD. This is a measuring stick game for both teams. For Notre Dame, the question is whether they have the ability to compete with the nation’s top teams. For Houston, the question is whether they really are one of the nation’s top teams. I expect Houston to answer the bell on Wednesday night, and even though the number is big, I will take Houston at -17.

On the one hand, I don’t think the Irish are very good. They have beaten nothing but weaker teams so far, and even dropped one of those (Elon). While they hung in there with a decent Rutgers team, they did it with 14 3s, something I doubt Houston allows. For the Cougars, the pattern so far has been to lose close to top 10 teams and wax everyone else. Their defense, while still good, does not appear to be what it has been over the past couple of years, and their offense is still finding its identity. It is completely possible that they win narrowly tonight, but I expect they are looking to make a bounce-back statement here. I also think the late-night overtime game took a lot out of Notre Dame. I will cautiously back the Cougars here.

Notre Dame vs Houston Prediction: Houston -17 (-110) available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.