St. John's Red Storm vs. DePaul Blue Demons: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 2/14/2023

Time: 9 p.m. ET

Venue: Wintrust Arena, Chicago, IL

Where to watch: FS1

DraftKings: St. John's -1.5

FanDuel: St. John's -1.5

BetMGM: St. John's -1.5

Caesars: St. John's -1.5

St. John's: 15-11 (5-10 Big East)

DePaul: 9-16 (3-11 Big East)

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St. John's: won 73-68 vs. No. 20 Providence

DePaul: lost 81-65 at Villanova

I'm not entirely sure where the St. John’s Red Storm get off pulling off crazy upsets out of nowhere, but apparently they are more than capable of doing that against the Providence Friars the other day and suddenly they are on pace for a respectable season more than we initially thought about a month ago. The Red Storm will try to continue these good times when they travel to Chicago to take on the DePaul Blue Demons on Tuesday.

 

So I'm not totally mad that St. John's completely went against the script and won a basketball game against a ranked opponent last week. But I am mad that Providence always has been the team that can do no wrong this time of year and it really upset me more than it probably should have. Not that I'm going to fully put all my money on Providence to win the Big East conference or make a deep run in the NCAA tournament, but I do expect them to not lose to a team that had lost three straight games before defeating Providence 73-68 on Saturday.

 

But it certainly helps when you have five players scored in double figures to get the victory led by 16 points off the bench from David Jones. Now normally I wouldn't rain on the parade of 1 Mr. Jones but the man shot 17 shots to get to 16 points and went one of five from 3 point line and he is coming off the bench. AJ store had 15 points but only took eleven shots to get there which is a much better improvement than what they can get from a guy named David off the bench. Even their best player, Joel Soriano, had only 10 points but he grabbed 13 rebounds which is more than you could ask for a lot of people.

 

But St. Johns had the right idea in this game. They let Bryce Hopkins beat them and no one else's. The star for Providence had 29 points on 10 of 20 shooting to go along with nine rebounds and he nearly single handedly defeated St. John's all by himself. Except Providence proved that they need more guys to score the ball then just their star player. And as a result of such things, the short tenure for Providence in the top 25 did not last long. It certainly won’t if they lose again.

 

“I thought we faced a very desperate team today. You could feel the energy that was in the building coming in,” Providence coach Ed Cooley said. “This is the first time I've felt all year that my team just didn't have it.”

 

This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with DePaul because that program isn't anywhere near close to contention. This is about St. John's, making things very interesting heading into conference tournament season. They may not have enough to actually get far into the tournament, but they are going to be a competitive out considering that this was a victory no one really expected.

 

Even though this is a good thing for this program, St. John's is only 1-6 in their last seven against the spread and you can understand why they would only be favored by 1.5. How we actually get there remains to be seen but DePaul is not that good and St. John's should expose them. St. John’s 78, DePaul 68

St. John's is 5-10 ATS after a conference game this season.

St. John's is 1-5 ATS when the line is +3 to -3 this season.

DePaul is 2-8 ATS on Tuesday the last 3 seasons.

PG: Posh Alexander

SG: Dylan Addae-Wusu

SF: A.J. Storr

PF: David Jones

C: Joel Soriano

PG: Umoja Gibson

SG: Javan Johnson

SF: Eral Penn

PF: Yor Anei

C: Da'Sean Nelson

Points: Joel Soriano -- 15.4

Rebounds: Joel Soriano -- 12.0

Assists: Andre Curbelo -- 4.5

Points: Umoja Gibson -- 16.1

Rebounds: Eral Penn -- 7.4

Assists: Umoja Gibson -- 4.8