Georgetown vs St. John's College Basketball Picks

Written by Matt Foust

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Georgetown and St. John's meet today in the Big East Tournament with the season on the line for both schools. Each team needs to win the conference tournament in order to secure an NCAA Tournament birth as they have struggled to a combined 7-13 record in their last 20 games. The contest tips off at 2:25pm ET at Madison Square Garden in New York. Georgetown vs St. John's College Basketball Picks

Georgetown vs St. John's College Basketball Picks at SBGglobal.com are favoring the Hoyas -5.5 against the spread.

Georgetown comes into this battle the hotter of the two squads, but they are far from a surging team. The Hoyas have garnered just four wins in their last 10 games to finish the regular season with a 16-13 overall record and a 7-11 mark in Big East action. The resulting conclusion secured them a lackluster 11th place in the 16 team conference.

The Hoyas last played on Saturday night at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. when they beat the DePaul Blue Demons 48-40. Neither team played well in the low scoring affair, but Georgetown connected on 40 percent of their field goal attempts while DePaul hit a lowly 29 percent. John Thompson's troops also outrebounded the Blue Demons 37 to 28. Junior forward DaJuan Summers led the Hoyas with 15 points; he was the only Georgetown player to reach double figures in scoring.

Technically, this is a neutral site game despite the fact that Madison Square Garden serves as the Red Storm's home court. The Hoyas are 1-1 in neutral site games this season and 3-7 in true road games. They lost to St. John's 59-56 in overtime at MSG on March 3rd.

St. John's enters this afternoon's foray with a 15-16 record and a 6-12 Big East mark. They are 13th in the conference standings and sitting outside the RPI top 100. The Red Storm wrapped up their regular schedule by splitting their final two games. They beat Georgetown on Tuesday night in New York before getting pounded 74-55 by the Irish on Friday in South Bend, Indiana.

The Red Storm outrebounded the Hoyas 42 to 22 and they also hit 15-of-17 from the charity stripe in Tuesday's win. Their performance at the line allowed them to overcome a poor shooting night from the floor as well as beyond the arc. However, they had no such luck on Friday night against Notre Dame.

St. John's hit just 29 percent from the field and 13 percent from downtown in the loss, negating 18 offensive rebounds. Forward Justin Burrell led the Red Storm with 17 points, but his effort was not on par with the Irish's Luke Harangody. The junior forward scored 31 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in leading his team past the Red Storm.

St. John's, despite their poor season, is 12-7 at Madison Square Garden this year.

Georgetown vs St. John's College Basketball Picks:

Georgetown Hoyas -5.5 (-110), Over 122.5 (-110), -245 (Moneyline)

St. John's Red Storm +5.5 (-110), Under 122.5 (-110), +205 (Moneyline)