Both the St. John’s Red Storm and Butler Bulldogs head into the weekend with questions and optimism, both have bounced back off a couple losses with a win on Wednesday, but which of these two teams are positioned to parlay that midweek win into back-to-back victories?
On Saturday, the Bulldogs will play host to the Red Storm at the Hinkle Fieldhouse. With home court advantage on their side, Butler will likely walk into the contest as the favorite, but prior to the most recent win, this team was 1-4 in a five game stretch. That’s hard to ignore.
On the other side, St. John’s has put up a superior record, but hasn’t really been tested much this year and has been mediocre—at best—to this point in the Big East conference schedule. The question is simple: which team can build off their latest win? Without a doubt, this is a big game for both programs and should be an exciting one to watch.
NCAA Basketball Betting at Bookmaker.eu
St. John’s Red Storm vs. Butler Bulldogs
Date and Time: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 4:30 p.m. ET
Location: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
College Basketball Odds: Check Back Later
Red Storm vs. Bulldogs TV Coverage: FOX
St. John’s got off to a torrid start to the season with a 12-0 record coming out of the non-conference schedule, but competition plays a key role there. Since getting into Big East action, the Red Storm have leveled off a bit, going 3-3, including back-to-back losses to Villanova and DePaul before bouncing back with a win over Creighton on Wednesday.
Against the Bluejays, the Red Storm won 81-66 as the team’s offense came back into form. St. John’s shot brilliantly from the floor and dominated the glass in route to the win.
The losses to Villanova and DePaul are concerning though Wednesday’s bounce back eases the concern to some extent. Still, the loss to DePaul came at home.
Statistically, the Red Storm is scoring 83 PPG thanks in large part to an excellent shooting percentage both overall and on the perimeter. Of the two teams tipping off on Saturday in this matchup, St. John’s is the better offensive team, but is that enough?
This team doesn’t bring a ton of height, focusing instead on a smaller rotation of good shooters including Shamorie Ponds who was back on the court on Wednesday after missing the DePaul game.
Ponds scored 22 in that one, nailing a couple from three and shooting 8-for-17 overall. The massing output was his fourth straight game played with at least 22 points scored. He’s got 20.6 PPG this year, but has been much better than that lately.
Along with Ponds, Mustapha Heron, LJ Figueroa, Marvin Clark, and Justin Simon are all scoring at least 10.9 PPG. After that, Mikey Dixon is a reasonable shooter, but there’s a sizeable drop off.
Of the five Red Storm players scoring in double-digits, only Simon has struggled shooting outside. Even senior forward Marvin Clark II is attempting more than six three-pointers again, making good on 38.8-percent of them.
For Butler, the stats aren’t that great. The Bulldogs are scoring 73 PPG and shooting well enough, but worse than St. John’s. They’re also at a seeming disadvantage in rebounding and blocking.
The team has three players scoring in double-digits in Kamar Baldwin, Paul Jorgensen and Sean McDermott. The latter two are good outside shots. Baldwin, meanwhile, is a strong ball handler with quality mid-range shooting.
Joey Brunk could give Butler an edge over St. John’s as the forward stands at 6’11” and offers some size inside though he’s only got four blocks and 83 rebounds in 17 games.
The Bulldogs, unlike St. John’s, topped DePaul on Wednesday with an impressive 87-69 win. Butler was making seemingly all of its shots. Jordan Tucker had a huge game off the bench for 19 points while Baldwin and McDermott notched 17 each. Baldwin also had 14 rebounds.
Despite the overall statistics on the season, Butler won the battle on the glass and shot remarkably well. It was a nice change of pace win for the Bulldogs who will try and use it as momentum going forward for a team that’s still lost four of their last six contests.
Live Betting
Overall record puts this game in St. John’s favor while the conference records to this point make it nearly a draw. The KenPom ratings for these teams would agree with the latter.
The overall adjusted efficiency margin puts Butler decimal points ahead of St. John’s thanks to the Bulldogs’ defensive advantage. Really, the two teams seem rather well matched. With that in mind, keep an eye on how the odds develop leading into the game and the live betting opportunities after tip-off at BookMaker.eu.
Watch the style and pace of game we see early. The Red Storm are a more prolific scoring team that will try and speed up the pace of play while Butler will slow it down. Whichever wins that battle, could come out on top.
Key Player
You could point to Brunk as the key player for his height or even Tucker who has scored 31 points and contributed 16 rebounds in the last two games as he continues to gain playing time.
Both are important and need to play well, but the real key is another Bulldog player and one that needs to pick up his game: Paul Jorgensen.
Jorgensen is second on the team in scoring with 13.1 PPG, but the senior guard has scored eight or fewer points in seven of the team’s last nine games. Butler is 4-5 in those games. The Bulldogs were 7-2 in the nine prior games.
Jorgensen scored just two points in the win over DePaul. He continues to get quality playing time, but the production hasn’t been there. It’s no coincidence that his play has gone down at the same time Butler’s found issues getting into the win column.
Red Storm vs. Bulldogs Live Betting
The Red Storm had a couple tough games, but look for them to get the upset on the road over Butler. St. John’s is a more dependable team right now. Both have their issues, but the Butler’s last six games gives serious pause.
Count on Ponds’ continued dominance with the St. John’s. He’s been nearly unstoppable the past few games and should be the difference in this one. He’ll put up a massive number of points and has enough around him to carry the Red Storm.
Check out all of the live betting at BookMaker.eu for this weekend’s college basketball action.
NCAA Basketball Score Prediction: St. John’s 76, Butler 66
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