Creighton Blue Jays vs. St. John's Red Storm: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 2/18/2023

Time: 7:30 p.m. ET

Venue: Carnesecca Arena, Queens, NY

Where to watch: FS1

DraftKings: Creighton -7

FanDuel: Creighton -7.5

BetMGM: Creighton -7.5

Caesars: Creighton -7

No. 18 Creighton: 17-9 (11-4 Big East) 

St. John's: 16-11 (6-10 Big East)

February is here and the college basketball season is taking full shape. Conference races still to be determined, the top 25 completely in shambles for what seems like every week, and there's bound to be an upset what seems like every single week. But as the season continues to progress with what seems like exciting action every week, you know our champion handicappers continue to put the work in each and every week to not only make money for them, but to ensure you get money in your pocket. All you need to do is look at the last 30 days. Scott Rickenbach has reeled in a net profit of $14,000 with a 24-9-0 run on the college hardwood. Team Del Genio has killed it with a 13-1-0 run at +$11,900. Will Rogers (28-15-0) and Matt Fargo (40-27-0) have also seen five figures over the last 30 days with college basketball. Surely, you want to get on this winning as well. All you need to do is go to bigal.com, check out our Best Bets page and make sure you are following along on the action. March will be here before you know it! Take advantage of our best plays and find out what our champion handicappers are doing at bigal.com!

Creighton: lost 94-86 (2OT) at No. 24 Providence)

St. John's: won 92-83 (2OT) at DePaul

It's not often you get two teams coming off double overtime games from earlier in the week and facing each other in a battle of wills and pure hilarity. But the Creighton Blue Jays will look to avenge themselves after losing to Providence earlier in the week when they take on the St. John's Red Storm, who defeated DePaul in double overtime the other day.

 

The 18th ranked Blue Jays are still in the thick of things as far as winning a regular season conference title is concerned. Right now, Creighton is in a mosh posh in second place with Providence and Xavier, trailing the Marquette Golden Eagles by a game and 1/2 for first place in the Big East standings.

 

The hope that Creighton could have kept pace with Marquette took a big hit on Valentine's Day in the 94-86 double overtime loss to the 24th ranked Friars earlier this week. Creighton had all 5 starters in double figures led by Ryan Nembhard scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Arthur Kaluma and Trey Alexander each had 17 points, as Creighton shot 47% from the field. Normally that would be a good enough number to win the game, but Creighton turned the ball over 14 times while Providence only turned it over seven. That allowed Providence to hang around long enough and convert on its opportunities.

 

“It was a great college basketball game if you didn’t care who won. It had to be a lot of fun to watch,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.

 

Any game involving a top team near the conference is going to be escalated going forward. There was a situation earlier this week when we had four or five teams in the Ivy League that were competing for first place and there was so much tension amongst the teams near the top. The same is going to happen in the Big East. Whether it's the remainder of the regular season, or whether it's the conference tournament itself, there is going to be some high profile games and there is going to be some big time matchups that are going to be so exciting and give us the feel of the Big East of yesteryear. We got this far without even talking about Connecticut as another option to win this whole tournament and they are absolutely as important of a team in this as Creighton.

 

And yet somehow we cannot even count out St. John's in this situation. Not that I think that they will end up winning the tournament or make a run, but they have been very pesky throughout this regular season and if they catch fire in one or two games, it's going to be a really big snowball going forward. Considering St. John's now has wins over Providence and that thriller against DePaul in the matter of a week, St. John's has every right to feel as confident as they can going into this matchup with one of the more underrated teams in the conference. And the fact that they are getting seven points would really really tempt me to pick them to at least cover.

 

Creighton is in need of a bounceback win, and I think it gets done. Just not at margin of victory they expect. St. John’s is on a high and they will find a way to cover. Creighton 80, St. John’s 75

Creighton is 6-9 ATS against conference opponents this season.

Creighton is 14-5 ATS after a game with 5 or less offensive rebounds the last 3 seasons.

St. John's is 3-11 ATS after an over this season.

St. John's is 30-27 ATS after a conference game the last 3 seasons.

PG: Ryan Nembhard

SG: Trey Alexander 

SF: Baylor Scheierman

PF: Arthur Kaluma

C: Ryan Kalkbrenner

PG: Posh Alexander

SG: Dylan Addae-Wusu

SF: A.J. Storr

PF: O'Mar Stanley

C: Joel Soriano