St. John's vs. Xavier Prediction, Odds and Key Players for Wednesday, Jan. 31

St. John's looks to build on its growing resume with a road win at bubble team Xavier on Wednesday night in Big East action.

Xavier is off two disheartening losses against the Big East's elite in Creighton and UConn but has an opportunity to get back on track against St. John's at home. Will the team be able to do so in a near-coin-flip matchup?

Here's our betting preview for St. John's vs. Xavier on Wednesday.

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St. John's vs. Xavier Odds, Spread and Total

Xavier vs. St. John's Betting Trends

• St. Jon's is 4-1 against teh spread (ATS) as an underdog
• Xavier is 12-8 ATS this season
• Xavier has gone OVER in 11 of 20 games this season

St. John's vs. Xavier How to Watch

• Date: Tuesday, January 31st
• Game Time: 6:30 PM EST
• Venue: Cintas Center
• How to Watch (TV): Fox Sports 1
• St. John's Record: 13-7
• Xavier Record: 10-10

St. John's vs. Xavier Key Players to Watch

St. John's

Joel Soriano: The big man is putting up nearly a double-double this season at 16 points per game and nearly 10 boards while shooting 63% from the field, but will face an elite Xavier frontcourt. Can he match his production in the first game, in which he scored 18 and grabbed 14 rebounds?

Xavier

Quincy Olivari: Olivari has stepped into the forefront of this Musketeers team, averaging nearly 18 points per game while shooting almost 44% from beyond the arc. He will have his hands full with St. John's elite defense, but Olivari has been a stud in all of Big East play.

St. John's vs. Xavier Prediction and Pick

This is a rematch from a Red Storm thrashing on December 22nd, an 81-66 win for St. John's in which the usually sure-handed Musketeers turned it over 18 times in the loss.

While many will point to the "revenge" angle, I find this to be a good landing spot for Xavier after getting boat raced by UConn on the road by 33 points on Sunday afternoon, giving some inherent market value on the home team on Wednesday night.

Xavier is a strong matchup for the Johnnies, bolstering an elite rim protection unit, and allowing the 11th-lowest field goal percentage at the cup this season. That's massive against a rim-reliant St. John's team that is shooting 30% from the three-point line at the second-lowest rate in conference play.

Meanwhile, Xavier is a strong ball-handling unit, top third in turnover percentage, so I find that the prior meeting is more of an outlier than the norm. Further, Xavier's offensive rebounding can give St. John's leaky coverage on the defensive glass (Xavier is second in Big East OREB% vs. St. John's 10th DREB%) and can give the Musketeers a necessary edge to cover the one possession spread.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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