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The St. John's Red Storm will head to Hinkle Fieldhouse on Tuesday night with one thing on their minds -- revenge. Last time these teams met up, it was Butler getting the better of the Red Storm by a score of 73-69 at Carnesecca Arena in Queens. Will the Red Storm get revenge on the Bulldogs, or will Butler sweep the Johnnies. Here are three things to watch in this contest.
Rysheed Jordan
The last time these teams squared off, the St. John's sophomore did not play due to the fact he was on his indefinite leave of absence. Jordan will be in the lineup this time, and will certainly be looking to make an impact. In 19 games this season, Jordan has averaged 13.4 points per game, which is good enough for second on the team. Butler's strategy in the last game was to let D'Angelo Harrison do whatever he wanted because, without Jordan, St. John's didn't have the secondary firepower to beat the Bulldogs. It's a different story this time around, and the Bulldogs will have to adjust.
Andrew Chrabascz
If Butler's sophomore big man can continue to dominate as he did against Marquette on Saturday, the Bulldogs are going to be a scary team on the road to March. Chrabascz had a career-high 30 points, and 13 of those 30 came in the last five mintues of the game and the overtime period. There will be nights when Kellen Dunham or Roosevelt Jones struggle, so for Butler to have Chrabascz as an emerging third scoring option is huge for them.
Butler's offensive rebounding dominance
This is something Mike Murtaugh and I will take a more in-depth look at later in the week, but for now, i'll say this. Butler, when they are victorious, generally has a sky-high OR%. This, according to the Basketball Reference glossary, is "the percentage of offensive rebounds a team grabs compared to the opponent's defensive rebounds". For example, against Marquette, the Bulldogs had 19 offensive rebounds. The Golden Eagles had 23 defensive rebounds. 19+23=42 total rebounds possible. Butler grabbed 19 of them. 19/42 = 45.2%. That was Butler's OR% for the Marquette game. NCAA average is 31%, so Butler absolutely excels in this department. They'll need to continue such against St. John's