#610 ASA PLAY ON 8* St John’s -115 over Marquette, Saturday at 12 PM ET - The Johnnies are vastly improved under new HC Rick Pitino sitting with a 12-6 record despite playing the 14th most difficult schedule in the country to date (per KenPom). We get them at home in this game coming off back to back road losses @ Creighton and @ Seton Hall. Their game @ Creighton went to the wire with the Jays winning 66-65 despite STJ making only 2 three point shots and 7 FT’s in the game. The Blue Jays were +12 points from beyond the arc and +9 from the charity stripe yet St John’s still had a shot to win that one on the road (STJ led by 9 with under 10:00 remaining in the game). The Golden Eagles are a step down from last year’s team that went 29-7 as they already have 5 losses on the year. After starting 5-0, Marquette is just 7-5 SU their last 12 games losing all 3 road games during that stretch @ Wisconsin, @ Providence, and @ Seton Hall. In their 4 true road games this season, Marquette is getting outscored by an average of 5 PPG while barely hitting 40% of their shots. We expect them to struggle offensively (they average just 66 PPG on the road) vs a St John’s defense that allows opponents to make just 39% of their shots at home. The Johnnies should be plenty of extra opportunities as well on the offensive glass where they rank 6th nationally corralling almost 40% of their misses vs a bad rebounding team in Marquette. The Eagles are also shorthanded with key rotation players Ross & Jones out and those 2 combined to average almost 40 minutes per game. St John’s around a pick-em is a very solid value and we’ll grab the Johnnies here.