No. 6 Alabama vs. No. 11 Notre Dame preview for March Madness first-round matchup

The NCAA Tournament begins on Tuesday, March 15th with the First Four, and then moves on to the first round on Thursday, March 17 and Friday, March 18. No. 6 seed Alabama Crimson Tide will face No. 11 seed Rutgers Scarlet Knights or Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the first round on Friday. Here’s an early look at what we can expect from the Crimson Tide and Scarlet Knights/Fighting Irish in this year’s March Madness Tournament.

Once the odds from DraftKings Sportsbook are made available for this game, we’ll add that information below. We’ll also add the game time and TV channel once it’s settled.

Game date: Friday, March 18th
Game time: 4:15 p.m. ET
TV channel: TNT
Location: San Diego, California

Odds: TBA

No. 6 Alabama

The Crimson Tide look to get back to the Sweet 16 and even further in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Alabama returns Jaden Shackelford and Jahvon Quinerly, also adding heavily-recruited guard JD Davison who has improved as the season has continued.

Shackelford leads the team in scoring with 16.6 points per game, while Quinerly chips in 14.3 ppg. The main factor for Alabama’s success has been defense, where they have struggled a ton, especially in their losses. There have been multiple games where they have scored 80+ points and lost, and to make an NCAA Tournament run they will need to lock in defensively.

Record: 19-13, 9-9 SEC
KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency: 14
KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency: 93
Against The Spread: 11-21-0
Over Total: 21-10-1
Odds to win NCAA Championship: +7000

No. 11 Notre Dame

It looked like a lost season for the Irish after a 4-5 start to the season, even with a win over Kentucky. Notre Dame then rattled off six straight wins and subsequently played more consistently. A down ACC helped the Irish as well, as they’ll look to potentially improve their seeding in the conference tournament but should be in no real danger of missing March Madness.

Record: 22-10, 15-5 Conference
KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency: 30
KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency: 83
Against The Spread: 17-15
Over Total: 18-14
Odds to win NCAA Championship: +15000

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