No. 9 St. John’s is in the midst of its best season in many years with the Red Storm atop the Big East but on potential upset alert Wednesday in conference action at always-dangerous Villanova. MyBookie’s St. John’s vs Villanova NCAAB pick can be found at the end of the article, but tht moment, the Johnnies are short favorites on the CBB odds.
Get St. John’s vs Villanova NCAAB Pick plus the Odds for each Team
Should they be favored?
| Opening Spread/Totals Subject to Change: Dayton +105 / VCU -128 Keep on Readding for that Expert Pick |
How to Bet VCU vs Dayton Odds & TV Info
NCAA basketball lines: Dayton +105 / VCU -128
When: Wednesday, 6 PM ET
Where: Finneran Pavilion
TV: FOX Sports 1
Stream: FOX Sports Live
St. John’s vs Villanova Last Meeting
On Jan. 11, St. John’s beat visiting Villanova 80-68 behind RJ Luis Jr., who had 30 points and 10 rebounds. The Red Storm led 36-31 at the half, with Deivon Smith (12 points) its high scorer before the break. St. John’s took the lead with 4:01 left in the second half and never looked back. Luis helped their team pull away for the victory with 23 second-half points. Wooga Poplar led the way for the Wildcats with 22 points. This will be the 133rd meeting and it’s split down the middle at 66-66.
Why Bet on St. John’s?
No. 9 St. John’s (21-3, 12-1) won its 10th straight game on Saturday, 68-62 at two-time defending national champion UConn despite trailing by six about midway through the second half. The Red Storm won despite missing 11 shots in a row during one stretch after the break. With UConn leading by four, Kadary Richmond had a pair of baskets during a 6-0 run to take the lead. The Red Storm would score 12 points in a row. From the 8:53 mark to the 3:13 timestamp in the second half, UConn scored just one point on 11 possessions. It turned it over six times during that span.
RJ Luis finished with 21 points to pace the Johnnies and scored eight points in the final 2:16. The 20-point effort marked the junior’s seventh of the season. Luis also grabbed seven rebounds and shot 10-for-15 inside the 3-point arc. Richmond added 12 points all in the second half and played an integral role with timely buckets down the stretch. He also had six rebounds and five assists.
Simeon Wilcher tallied his 10th double-figure scoring effort of the year ending the night with 11 points. Zuby Ejiofor was the fourth St. John’s player to finish in double-digits tallying 11 points while shooting 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.
The Red Storm dominated in turnover margin (+15) committing only seven, while forcing UConn into 22 turnovers. The Johnnies outscored the Huskies 18-2 in points off turnovers. St. John’s has now won 16 of its last 17 games and earned back-to-back top-20 victories in the same week for the first time since 2018. The Johnnies’ 10-game winning streak marks the second longest winning streak in NCAA Division I.
“Our poorest game in the last 10 was Connecticut. Were we thrilled with the win? Yes, no question. We played awful against Connecticut. Now you wouldn’t think that, but we did. We had 35 bad plays. Normally, this time of year, you’re probably at 17 or 18,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said.
In the AP Poll, the Johnnies moved into the top-10, rising three spots from last week. The No. 9 ranking marks the program’s highest since the final rankings of the 1999-2000 season. The team already has exceeded last year’s win total and its 10-game winning streak is the program’s longest during Big East competition since 1984-85. The Johnnies have been impressive defensively holding 11 of their 13 league opponents to 70 points or less.
The 12 conference wins are the program’s highest total since the 2010-11 campaign and will look to reach 13 for the first time since 1998-99, when it finished conference play with a 14-4 record. St. John’s will play its first regular season game as an AP top-10 team since Feb. 27, 1999, when it also faced Villanova at Finneran Pavilion, the Wildcats won, 66-60.
Luis was named the Naismith Trophy National Player of the Week on Monday for last week. He was the first St. John’s player to earn national recognition since Joel Soriano on Jan. 16, 2023 and just the third since 2019. Luis is averaging 17.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
^NCAA Basketball Point Spreads Today provided by MyBookie
Why Bet on Villanova?
Villanova (14-10, 7-6 Big East) won its second game in a row Sunday, 80-68 over visiting Xavier. Villanova took the lead early in the second half, going ahead by six in the first four minutes after the break, when Xavier put together a 15-3 run to retake the lead, going ahead by as many as six, 52-46, Xavier’s largest lead of the game. The Wildcats responded with an 8-0 run to move back in front and did not trail for the remainder of the game, leading by as many as 16 before winning by 12.
Xavier finished with a 30-27 advantage on the board, including an 8-6 advantage on the offensive glass, but the Wildcats outscored the Musketeers 14-9 on second-chance points. Villanova shot 50.9 percent (29-57) overall, and 50 percent (12-24) from outside. It marked the ninth time this season — and first since Jan. 5 — that the Wildcats converted 50 percent or higher of their field goal attempts. VU ranks third in the Big East in field-goal percentage (.470).
“I was proud of the way our guys competed,” said Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune. “Besides a couple of plays in transition, I thought we played a pretty complete defensive game. Then, in the second half, we made some tough shots as well. I thought we would be in a good spot, either way, because of the way we defended.”
Eric Dixon scored 22 of his 24 points over the final 11:02. Dixon connected on 7-of-9 field goal attempts in that stretch. Tyler Perkins chipped in with 20 points and five rebounds in 25:56 while Wooga Poplar added 23 points and a team-high eight rebounds for the Wildcats. The game was tied at 56 with 9:40 to go when a Dixon traditional 3-point lead began what would become a 24-12 burst. When Perkins scores in double figures in 2024-25, Villanova sports a 7-0 record (1.000).
Dixon moved into fifth place on Villanova’s all-time scoring list (2,046 points) on Sunday. Only Kerry Kittles (2,243), Scottie Reynolds (2,222), Keith Herron (2,170), and Bob Schafer (2,094) have scored more points in the Blue and White since the program was formed in 1920. At 23.8 points per game, Dixon continues to lead the nation in scoring.
“You look at the game, and you’re seeing other guys really get it going — he only had four shots in the first half — but that’s partially because we were calling other guys’ numbers based on them having it going,” Villanova coach Neptune said. “But you know Eric Dixon at some point is going to get going and he kept it.”
The Wildcats have held their last three foes (Creighton, DePaul, Xavier) to an average of 59.7 points per game. Villanova is 12-3 (.750) this season and 29-8 (.784) over the last two seasons when holding foes below the 70-point threshold. The Wildcats are 2-7 (.286) in 2024-25 when teams score 70 or more in a contest and 3-18 (.143) in that spot in the last two seasons.
Expert Prediction: St. John’s 71, Villanova 70
NCAAB Pick: St.John’s ML
🗓️Wednesday Big 5 Schedule
— Aaron Bracy (@Aaron_Bracy) February 12, 2025
St. John's at Villanova, 6 pm, FS1
La Salle at Saint Joseph's, 7 pm, ESPN+
Tulsa at Temple, 7 pm, ESPN+
FULL season schedule/results👇https://t.co/4FP5GnusDA#Big5Hoops
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