St. John's Red Storm vs Xavier Musketeers Prediction, 1/31/2024 College Basketball Picks, Best Bets & Odds

Game: St. John's Red Storm vs Xavier Musketeers

Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Location: Cintas Center in Cincinnati, OH

TV: ESPN+

The Xavier Musketeers (10-10) are welcoming the St. John's Red Storm (13-7) at Cintas Center on Wednesday.

The St. John's Red Storm faced Villanova and notched a win by a score of 70-50 in their last game. St. John's ended the contest having earned a 46.7% field goal percentage (28 out of 60) and buried 5 of their 19 shots from beyond the perimeter. At the charity stripe, the Red Storm knocked down 9 of 14 attempts for a percentage of 64.3%. In regard to pulling down rebounds, they compiled 37 with 11 of them being offensive. They also distributed 17 dimes for the game in addition to forcing the opposition into 10 turnovers and having 6 steals. When talking about defending, St. John's allowed their opponent to shoot 37.5% from the floor on 18 of 48 shooting. Villanova doled out 10 assists and had 4 steals for this game. Moreover, Villanova had 22 rebounds (5 offensive, 17 defensive), but didn't have a block. Villanova shot 76.9% at the charity stripe by making 10 of 13 shots. They also made 4 of their 25 shots from three-point range. In relation to personal fouls, the Red Storm finished with 12 while Villanova had 17 personal fouls.

Joel Soriano is one player who had an impact in this game. He went 88.9% from the floor and also dished out 1 assist. He saw the court for 30 mins played and totaled 9 rebounds. He ended up with 21 points on 8 of 9 shooting.

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St. John's comes into this matchup with a win-loss record of 13-7 so far this year. They cough up possession 11.8 times per game and as a basketball team are committing 17.8 personal fouls every game. As a team, St. John's is pulling down 40.2 boards per game and has earned 311 dimes on the year, which has them ranked 76th in the nation in terms of passing. The Red Storm are hitting 33.3% on shots from downtown (139 of 417) and 70.5% from the charity stripe. They average 77.2 points per outing (101st in the country) while hitting 44.5% from the field.

On the defensive end, the Red Storm are forcing their opponents into 12.9 turnovers per contest while drawing 16.0 fouls. They are ranked 125th in the country in allowing assists to their opponents with 245 relinquished this year. The Red Storm defense is allowing a field goal percentage of 41.7% (490 of 1,175) and they relinquish 34.2 rebounds per contest as a squad. They are conceding 31.3% on 3-pointers while they are 123rd in D-1 in points per game allowed (69.6).

When they last played, the Xavier Musketeers took a loss by a final score of 99-56 against Connecticut. The Musketeers recorded 18 defensive rebounds and 9 offensive boards totaling 27 in this contest. They also turned the ball over 14 times, while recording 3 steals for the contest. Connecticut was called for 19 fouls in the matchup which took the Musketeers to the free throw line for 16 tries. They were able to knock down 8 of the free throws for a rate of 50.0%. In relation to shooting from 3-point land, Xavier converted 6 of 18 tries (33.3%). When the final whistle blew, the Musketeers shot 21 for 61 from the field which had them at 34.4%. The Musketeers permitted Connecticut to bury 38 of their 65 tries from the floor which had them at 58.5% in the matchup. They finished the game shooting 58.6% from three-point range by shooting 17 out of 29 and finished the game at 6 out of 9 from the free throw line (66.7%). When discussing cleaning up the glass, Xavier allowed Connecticut to grab 40 overall (7 on the offensive side).

Dayvion McKnight was important for the Musketeers in this contest. He totaled 18 points in his 29 mins of playing time and had 4 assists in this contest. He made 6 out of 10 for the matchup giving him a rate of 60.0%, and had 1 rebound.

Xavier has a record of 10-10 for the year. The Musketeers are responsible for committing 17.2 personal fouls per game and they shoot 72.5% from the free throw line. They are getting an assist 16.3 times per contest (33rd in the nation) and they turn the ball over 11.7 times per game. Xavier has 1,515 pts so far this year (75.8 per game) and they average 39.8 rebounds per game. As an offensive team, the Musketeers are shooting 43.7% from the floor, which is 239th in college basketball.

The Musketeers are ranked 230th in D-1 in points per game surrendered with 73.1. They are forcing 11.4 turnovers per game and have let teams shoot 41.7% from the field (90th in D-1). The Xavier defense allows 33.8% on shots from beyond the perimeter (153 of 452) and their opponents are making 69.7% of their free throw attempts. They concede 16.3 assists and 36.7 rebounds per contest, which is 354th and 277th in college basketball.

Who will win tonight's NCAA basketball game against the spread?

Guy Bruhn's Pick: Take Xavier

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