DePaul vs. St. John's Prediction and Odds for Wednesday, December 7 (Blue Demons Can Run with Red Storm)
By Ben Heisler
It's been an up-and-down start in 2022 for the DePaul Blue Demons.
After winning their first three games of the season, they lost three straight, including at home to Texas A&M, and then followed it up with two straight overtime victories vs. Samford and Loyola Chicago.
They'll look to keep the positive momentum in their first road game in Big East play when they travel to St. John's to face Mike Anderson's Red Storm at Carnesecca Arena in Queens.
St. John's got off to an 8-0 start this year, but come off their first loss of the season in the Big 12 / Big East Challenge on the road vs. Iowa State, scoring a season low 60-points in an 11-point defeat.
Here's how the oddsmakers have tonight's conference matchup:
DePaul vs. St. John's Odds, Spread and Total
DePaul vs. St. John's Prediction and Pick
A near-double digit spread is too many points for a DePaul squad that's played several quality opponents along the way this season, while also having solid metrics that match up well against St. John's.
They took care of Minnesota, a lower level Big Ten team on the road by 16 points before losing two of their next games in the Bahamas, one of which came by only four points to Texas A&M, a top 33 ranked KenPom squad this season. They also took out Loyola Chicago away from home in their most previous matchup.
DePaul is a much better shooting team from outside (36.1%) than St. John's (31.2%), better at getting to the free throw line, and a significantly better free throw shooting team. The Blue Demons are 15th-best in the country in free throw percentage this year at 78.8%, and via KenPom, they average 21.2% of their total points from the charity stripe, good for 60th best in college basketball.
The key for DePaul to hang around in this game will be to limit turnovers and not give up a ton of offensive rebounding opportunities to St. John's on the glass. If they take care of the basketball, make shots from outside, and make their free throws, all of which they've frequently done all season, they could even pull off the upset.
I'll back them to hang around by just under double digits instead.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.