How to Watch, Listen, or Stream

Game Time: 7:00 PM ET

TV: Fox Sports 1

Stream: Fox Sports Go

Radio: 970 AM WNYM (St. John’s), 94.5 ESPN FM/540 ESPN (Marquette)

Fancy a Bet?

Odds: Marquette have opened up as 2.5 favorites in this one over St. John’s but the line has since moved to (-2) still in favor of the Golden Eagles

Record ATS: 13-17-2 (St. John’s), 19-12 (Marquette)

O/U: The over/under for this one is 150 but depending on what sports book you use has also shown up as 149.

All information from oddsshark.com

The first night of action is now done and dusted in the Big East Tournament. St. John’s has marched onto the quarterfinals after first round victory over the DePaul Blue Demons.

It was a great showing by the Red Storm as they downed the Blue Demons by a score of 82-74. The solid scoring trio of Mustapha Heron, Shamorie Ponds, and Justin Simon all finished the night with 18 points. To top it all off, all five starters on the Red Storm finished the night in double figures. Their tournament hopes are back on track and the win ended the three-game skid that had bewildered the Johnnies at the end of the regular season. Ponds, to his credit, also finished the night with seven assists to top off his and the team’s first night at Madison Square Garden.

Things go turn up a notch for St. John’s now as they are off to the quarterfinals. Waiting for them will be newly minted Big East Player of the Year Markus Howard and the 2-seeded Marquette Golden Eagles to kick off the night session at Madison Square Garden.

Marquette will hope that this will be third time’s the charm against St. John’s. Much like the Johnnies, MU wil not exactly stroll into conference tournament on a high note. The Golden Eagles stumbled over the final stretch to end the regular season, having been trudging through a four-game losing streak with opponents averaging 72.5 points per game against them. All while scoring an average of 67.3 points per game in these losses.

To top things off, this is an uncomfortable match up for Marquette. St. John’s is the only team in the conference to sweep the regular season series against them, and up until their four game skid to close out the regular season, they were the only team to have beaten Marquette, full stop.

St. John’s won the first game at home on New Year’s Day 89-69 and the return leg in Milwaukee on February 5th, 70-69. In both games, Shamorie Ponds scored 20+ points on Marquette whereas Markus Howard in the first go-around was limited to just eight and then had a slow start before reaching 17 in the second. It should also be noted that in the first game, all five Red Storm starters finished in double figures.

For Marquette to pull the win off, Markus Howard must be the focal point. They have the options, it’s just that they need to avoid going shot-for-shot and instead apply pressure as this St. John’s team can bend easily, especially in forcing fouls due to their lack of depth. They may also benefit from the fact that only twice this season has St. John’s won back-to-back games. Going game-to-game has been a tough transition for this Red Storm team.

For St. John’,s it is more of the same of what they did last night against DePaul. Especially if Ponds and Heron can go toe-to-toe again in production. That should do wonders for this team. If they are able to beat Marquette for a third time, that should also settle their bubble issues with regards to tournament. But that’s for another place and time.

In all, it should be a fun game on an action-packed day and night of Big East action.

Match up by the Numbers

Based on KenPom’s Adjusted Offensive and Defensive Efficiency, these are the numbers for both teams:

St. John’s have an AdjOE ranking of 110.7 (55th in the nation) and an AdjDE ranking of 101.0 (112th in the nation).

Marquette have an AdjOE ranking of 113.6 (32nd in the nation) and an AdjDE ranking of 96.1 (39th in the nation).