Former NCAA greats and current head coaches Bobby Hurley and Chris Mullin will lead their teams to Dayton, Ohio in a First Four matchup between the Arizona State Sun Devils and St. John’s Red Storm. Both teams came up short in their conference tourneys and the Red Storm are 3-7 SU in 10 games this season as an underdog. The Sun Devils’ win total has improved each year under Hurley and they beat St. John’s last season by 12 points.
The game opened as a pick’em with the odds shifting to Arizona State as a 1-point favorite. The total opened at 151 and has since moved to 152.5.
St. John’s vs Arizona State Game Center
STANDOUT STATS
- St. John’s is 1-4 SU in its last five games with three of those four losses by double digits. However, the Red Storm are 4-1 SU in five games on a neutral court this season with wins over Villanova, California, VCU and Princeton.
- Both teams are fairly evenly matched offensively, ranking 44th and 47th in points per game, but St. John’s has the shooting edge as the Red Storm average 36 percent from three-point range on 23.6 attempts per game. Arizona State’s defense could be in trouble as it allows 25.5 attempts from behind the arc on 33.6 percent shooting and St. John’s gets 25.5 points per game from behind the arc, which is 82nd in the NCAA.
- These teams have faced each other in recent memory, playing an out-of-conference game in December 2017. The Sun Devils walloped St. John’s by 12 points.
- Arizona State is a great rebounding team at 40.1 boards per game, which has it in the top 10 in the NCAA. That could be a huge edge vs St. John’s, which rates 291st at 32.6.
- The total has gone OVER in four of St. John’s last five games (avg. combined score: 155.4) and in five of its last seven postseason appearances.
My Best Bet for St. John’s vs Arizona State
Arizona State -1
This one is very tough to call because both have some ugly losses on their resumes and the Pac-12 Conference was so bad this year. But I think Arizona State has more talent to be able to overcome St. John’s defense and the rebounding margin could play a huge factor in a game where I expect a ton of misses from behind the arc. Although I tend to not use past results as an indicator of future success, these teams faced each other just over a year ago on a neutral site and ASU beat St. John’s by 12 points.
