Creighton Blue Jays vs. Georgetown Hoyas: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 2/1/2023

Time: 6:30 p.m. ET

Venue: Capital One Arena, Washington, DC

Where to watch: CBSSN

DraftKings: Creighton -13

FanDuel: Creighton -13.5

BetMGM: Creighton -13.5

Caesars: Creighton -13

Creighton: 13-8 (7-3 Big East)

Georgetown: 6-16 (1-10 Big East)

Creighton: won four straight; won 84-67 vs. Xavier

Georgetown: lost 10 of 11; lost 75-73 at St. John's

The Creighton Blue Jays are coming into this game winners of four straight and are looking to inch closer to the top of the Big East standings should they get a win here. Creighton has won four straight since losing 90-87 at conference leader Xavier, but is coming off an 84-67 redemption victory over the No. 13 Musketeers at home. All five starters scored in double digits, led by Arthur Kaluma’s 20 points and nine rebounds, while Ryan Kalkbrenner finished with 17 points and eight rebounds. Creighton had the rebounding edge 33-26 and shot 56.7 percent from the floor, winning the game while only taking nine free-throw attempts.

“Playing Creighton at Creighton is not an easy task for anybody,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said. “I think they’re one of college basketball’s best teams, and certainly one of the Big East’s best teams, maybe overall, because of their defense.”

 

The Blue Jays have won seven of their last nine and have only gone 5-4 against the spread in that time but have covered in three straight with wins over Butler, St. John’s and now Xavier. We tend to overlook the Blue Jays during conference play, but they always tend to turn it on during March. This might appear to be an exception.

 

The Georgetown Hoyas are coming into this game, as the home team, losers of 10 of 11 and are coming off a 75-73 loss to the St. John’s Red Storm on Sunday. It hasn’t been the greatest of years for Patrick Ewing’s crew, and with three ranked opponents coming after this matchup with Creighton, it’s not about to get any easier. Primo Spears led the way with 25 points and Brandon Murray also chipped in with 17 for the Hoyas, who lost on a last-second 3-pointer to a St. John’s team that is fighting for its postseason lives at this current point in time. Unlike Georgetown, who will not be sniffing the postseason under any circumstances whatsoever by the time this is all said and done.

 

Georgetown, however, has covered in its last four games but three of those games have come when the Hoyas have been double-digit underdogs. The only time it was less when they were getting 1.5 against DePaul on Jan. 24. They were getting 10 against St. John’s, 17 against Xavier and 13.5 in a 4-point loss to Villanova. Clearly this is not the way to go at the moment.

 

This shouldn’t come as a shock that the Blue Jays should roll with this one. At the time of publishing, the lines haven’t been released, but we can assume that Creighton will be laying double digits in points. They’re just the better team overall in terms of offense, defense and overall talent. Georgetown is light years away from getting to the point where they can contend again, and it’s a shame that it’s likely to come crashing down soon. Creighton 84, Georgetown 60

Creighton is 5-7 ATS as a road favorite the last 3 seasons.

Creighton is 20-15 ATS off a conference win the last 3 seasons.

Georgetown is 1-5 ATS as a home underdog this season.

PG: Ryan Nembhard

SG: Trey Alexander

SF: Baylor Scheierman

PF: Arthur Kaluma

C: Ryan Kalkbrenner

PG: Primo Spears

SG: Jordan Rileey

SF: Brandon Murray

PF: Akok Akok

C: Qudus Wahab

Injury report

Creighton: None

Georgetown: D'ante Bass (lower body, questionable), Jay Heath (hand, out)

Points: Ryan Kalkbrenner -- 15.1

Rebounds: Baylor Scheierman -- 8.3

Assists: Ryan Nembhard -- 5.1

Points: Primo Spears -- 17.1

Rebounds: Qudus Wahab -- 7.4

Assists: Primo Spears -- 5.4