Nova Notes
The 10-4 Villanova Wildcats are on campus to take on the 10-4 St John’s Red Storm. Tip is 1:00 pm eastern on FOX! Nova is -4.5/143.5.
Rick Pitino’s Red Storm are fresh off of a pasting of Butler 86-70 while Villanova was lucky in beating Xavier by 1. The Cats scored just one basket in the final 10 minutes of the game, missed two free throws with 6 seconds left and gave the Musketeers a shot at stealing the win but their shot was just short.
St John’s is anchored by Joel Soriano (17.1 ppg, 10.4 rpg and shoots 65%). They have balanced scoring with Daniss Jenkins, RJ Luis, Bradley Dunlap and Jordan Dingle all solid contributors. Their bench consists of three players mostly: Ludlum (scorer), Ejiofor (rebounder) and Alleyne (defensive specialist). Defensively they press a lot and they are the 3rd best offensive rebounding team in the land.
We’ll see a lot of full court pressure by the Red Storm as Nova will be missing Moore who could have handled it but it’s iffy with everyone else. They have had difficulties with their zone (a blessing for Villanova who has struggled vs zones). Additionally, Jenkins is their only true point guard. When he’s on the bench, they struggle.
Villanova has beaten St John’s 9 of their last 10 meetings with the games typically going Under. Nova has played 6 straight Unders. They are going for their 5th straight win. After another game at home vs DePaul the Cats take on the upper echelon in Marquette and UCONN so this is a key game for them.
My pick is a Nova/ Under teaser. So..with 4.5 points, it’s Nova pick/Under 148
Nova Pick Record: 6-8