DePaul vs. St. John’s Big East Tournament First Round Odds and Free Pick (Archive)
The Big East Tournament gets underway from New York City on Wednesday and the second of three games features DePaul vs. St. John’s – neither has a realistic shot at the NCAA Tournament. Which way to lean at BMR’s top-rated sportsbooks?
DePaul Blue Demons vs. St. John’s Red Storm
Wednesday, March 09, 2022 – 07:00 PM EST at Madison Square Garden
Fox Sports 1 has this telecast between No. 10 seed DePaul and No. 7 St. John’s in the first round of the Big East Tournament. The only way either of these schools will sniff the NCAA Tournament is if it wins this event. The Red Storm might have a slight shot, but the Blue Demons have none.
The teams split two regular-season games, each winning at home. The last played on Feb. 27 and the Blue Demons prevailed 99-94 behind a career-high 39 points from Javon Freeman-Liberty. David Jones had 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists. Julian Champagnie had 26 points for the Red Storm.
St. John’s leads the all-time series 28-22. The sides have played just once in the Big East Tournament and the Red Storm won 82-74 on March 13, 2019. The underdog is 4-1 against the spread at BMR’s top-rated books in the past five meetings.
Blue Demons One-Man Show
DePaul (15-15, 6-14) has one stellar player in Big East leading scorer Javon Freeman-Liberty, who was named second-team All-Big East. He’s averaging 21.9 points on the season, which ranks No. 6 nationally. The senior guard also added 7.3 rebounds per game and probably would have been first-team All-Big East if he didn’t miss a handful of games.
He scored 20 or more points in 16 of the 23 games played and was named Big East Player of the Week three times. Freeman-Liberty ranked Top 10 in the league in scoring, minutes, steals, defensive rebounds, rebounding, field goal percentage, three-pointers per game, and free throw percentage.
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The problem for first-year Coach Tony Stubblefield is that Freeman-Liberty, who needs 4 points for 1,700 career and 4 steals for 200 career, often doesn’t get much help. Stubblefield is making his first appearance at the Big East Tournament as a head coach but was in this event three times while previously as an assistant at Cincinnati from 2006-10.
DePaul is 4-13 all-time in Big East Tournament action but has won its first-round game in the past two tournaments: Last year beating Providence (before losing to UConn) and in 2020 beating Xavier before the event was canceled due to the pandemic.
If the Blue Demons are up at the half, that could be a good sign as they are 11-6 this season when leading at the break. They are 13-6 when attempting more free throws than their opponent. DePaul is 5-0 ATS in its past five games on the NCAAB picks. It is +8000 to win this tournament.
Home-Court Advantage for Red Storm?
St. John’s (16-14, 8-11 Big East) was sniffing the NCAA Tournament bubble following a 91-57 home rout of Butler on Feb. 18, but the Red Storm have completely fallen out of at-large contention by losing three of four since – including that defeat at DePaul. Coach Mike Anderson’s club is +2200 on the NCAAB odds to win this event.
The Red Storm has two terrific players in All-Big East first-team selection Julian Champagnie and All-Big East honorable mention Posh Alexander, who has dealt with some injuries. Champagnie has joined Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Malik Sealy, Marcus Hatten, D'Angelo Harrison, and Shamorie Ponds as the only players in school history to be named first-team All-Big East in back-to-back seasons.
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Champagnie is second in the league in scoring at 18.9 ppg and also leads the team in rebounding at 6.6 rpg. He is a finalist for the Julius Erving Award, presented to the top small forward in the nation. In the two games against DePaul, he averaged 30 points and 11 rebounds and shot 50% from deep.
Alexander is second on the team in scoring at 14.1 ppg and leads in assists (5.4 apg) and steals (Big East-leading 2.3 spg). The problem is they don’t get much help most nights. St. John's is 29-34 all-time in Big East Tournament play with three championships (1983, 1986, 2000). Last year, it lost in the quarterfinals to Seton Hall.
St. John’s 5.6 blocks per game sit second in the Big East and 10th in the country, while its 9.0 steals per contest lead the conference and rank 16th nationally. When leading at the half, the Red Storm are 14-3 this season. When trailing, 1-10.
The Johnnies will have a bit of a home-court advantage as they play a handful of home games at Madison Square Garden each season, but they were just 1-4 at MSG this year. The Red Storm are 7-3 ATS in their past 10 as favorites.
DePaul has been playing better of late, so we’ll take the points but expect a close St. John’s victory.
NCAAB Pick: DePaul +5.5 (-110) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.