The Butler Bulldogs (14-17, 6-14 Big East) and St. John’s Red Storm (17-14, 7-13) meet Wednesday in a 1st-round matchup in the Big East Tournament. Tip from Madison Square Garden in New York is at 3 p.m. ET (FS1). Below, we analyze Tipico Sportsbook’s lines around the Butler vs. St. John’s odds, and make our expert college basketball picks, predictions and bets.
Butler closed out the regular season with 4 losses in the final 5 games, although setbacks against ranked teams Marquette and Xavier is nothing to be ashamed about.
The Over cashed in the final game for the Bulldogs against the Musketeers, and that snapped an impressive 9-0 Under run for Butler, including the most recent meeting with St. John’s Feb. 7.
The Bulldogs topped the Johnnies 68-66 in the Feb. 8 matchup at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, avenging a 77-61 drubbing in NYC on Jan. 10. The Under cashed in each of the regular-season meetings.
St. John’s also lost its final 2 regular-season games and 3 of its last 4, although all 3 setbacks were against ranked teams. The Red Storm enters 4-2 ATS in the last 6 games after going 0-6 ATS in the previous 6 outings.
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Butler vs. St. John’s odds
Provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday at 11:33 p.m. ET.
- Moneyline (ML): Off the board (OTB)
- Against the spread: Butler +6.5 (-115) | St. John’s -6.5 (-105)
- Over/Under (O/U): 144.5 (O: -110 | U: -110)
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Butler vs. St. John’s picks and predictions
Prediction
St. John’s 72, Butler 63
Moneyline
The game was OTB at the time of publishing, but it will be too expensive to bet St. John’s when a moneyline comes online, anyway.
PASS, and look to the spread instead.
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Against the spread
ST. JOHN’S -6.5 (-105) has the home-crowd advantage playing in New York City, and it served the Johnnies well at Carnesecca Arena in mid-January when it pasted Butler 77-61.
Neither team has played particularly well at any point, especially down the stretch, which is why they both find themselves in the opening game of the conference tourney on Wednesday. Still, the Red Storm has Posh Alexander, David Jones and Joel Soriano, a solid trio which should be enough to advance St. John’s at least 1 game in this tourney.
St. John’s has covered 3 of the last 4 meetings in this series, and for what it’s worth, the home side has won 6 of the last 7 in this series. While, true, this is technically a neutral-site event, it is in New York City, just miles from its campus, while Butler isn’t likely to travel well from Indianapolis, especially for a likely 1-and-done scenario for a sub-.500 team.
Over/Under
UNDER 144.5 (-110) is the best play on the board in this Big East Tourament opening matchup.
The Under was 9-1 in the final 10 regular-season games for Butler, including the most recent meeting against St. John’s. In fact, both games with the Red Storm cashed Under, and neither game was particularly close to threatening to go high.
The Red Storm scored plenty during the regular season at 77.6 PPG, while they were one of the worst defensive teams in the league, allowing 75.7 PPG. It isn’t a slam-dunk play by any means, but Butler’s offense is also brutal, going for just 65.3 PPG, and it is one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the conference, while doing a solid job defensively to mitigate the risk.
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