The St. John’s Red Storm (5-3) host the Creighton Bluejays (4-2) at Carnesecca Arena in Queens, N.Y., for a Big East battle tipping off at 7 p.m. ET. Below, we analyze the Creighton-St. John’s college basketball betting odds and lines, with picks and predictions.
The Bluejays are No. 9 in the USA TODAY Sports Men’s College Basketball Poll.
Creighton at St. John’s: Betting odds, spread and lines
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at 1 p.m. ET.
- Money line: Creighton -350 (bet $350 to win $100) | St. John’s +260 (bet $100 to win $260)
- Against the spread/ATS: Creighton -7 (-110) | St. John’s +7 (-110)
- Over/Under: 158.5 (O: -110 | U: -110)
Creighton at St. John’s: Three things to know
- Creighton lost its Big East opener 89-84 to Marquette as an 8.5-point home favorite this past Monday. The contributing factors to Creighton’s loss were it being out-rebounded 40-25 and shooting an awful 14-for-25 from the free-throw line.
- St. John’s also dropped its Big East opener in its previous game—a 97-94 overtime loss at Georgetown—as a 1-point underdog Dec. 13. The Red Storm struggled from deep, hitting only 4 of 13 3-pointers while the Hoyas sank 11 of 23 from behind the arc.
- Under head coach Greg McDermott, Creighton has been nationally ranked a lot over the past decade. St. John’s has gotten the better of the Bluejays recently, as the Red Storm are 3-1 straight up and ATS in their last 4 games in the head-to-head series. All three wins were by at least 12 points.
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Creighton at St. John’s: Odds, betting lines, predictions and picks
Prediction
St. John’s 86, Creighton 81
Money line (ML)
Against my better judgment, I am going to LEAN ST. JOHN’S (+260) for a quarter-unit because of a personal philosophy to always sprinkle on the underdog’s money line when taking the points. Feel free to pass since the following betting markets are a little safer.
Against the spread (ATS)
GIMME the JOHNNIES +7 (-110). Athletically, St. John’s matches up real well vs. Creighton and the Bluejays have weaknesses the Red Storm can exploit.
St. John’s is a bad 3-point shooting team (233rd in 3-point percentage) but Creighton is even worse at defending the three, ranking 248th in opponent’s 3-point percentage. The Red Storm getting open looks in their home gym bodes well for St. John’s backers.
Also, Creighton is reluctant to attack the basket, which is why it’s ranked 232nd in free-throw rate. They’re also 192nd in free-throw percentage. If Creighton is knocking down threes, this won’t come down to free throws; however, BetMGM is projecting it as a two-possession game, so free-throw shooting may come into play.
Over/Under (O/U)
St. John’s plays a very volatile style of basketball; the Red Storm pressure the ball heavily (32nd in opponent’s turnover percentage) and crash the boards (47th in offensive rebounds per game). This leads to crazy swings in momentum.
There’ll be a stretch where St. John’s forces turnovers that lead to easy buckets or gets fouled on putbacks but then will have lapses in defense, or take unnecessary gambles, leaving 3-point shooters wide open.
Creighton and St. John’s have a combined 10-4 O/U record and this game has the highest total on BetMGM‘s slate today for a reason. We are TAKING OVER 158.5 (-110) for 1 unit.
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