College Basketball Odds, Pick for St. John’s vs Georgetown

The Big East generated plenty of headlines over the weekend for a couple of reasons: one is UConn's dominance in a win over Marquette, and the other is Rick Pitino eviscerating his team after blowing an 19-point lead against Seton Hall.

Will the Johnnies respond positively against Georgetown? Here's college basketball odds and a pick for St. John's vs. Georgetown.

The Johnnies' offense revolves around two players: veteran center Joel Soriano (15 PPG, 12 RPG) and point guard Daniss Jenkins (14 PPG, four APG).

It's not like Soriano demands a ton of attention on post-ups, as he usually scores off of offensive rebounds. Soriano grabs nearly four offensive rebounds per game, and it could be even more against the Hoyas' porous frontcourt.

Despite the knocks from Pitino, St. John's defense grades out favorably at 45th in defensive efficiency. It's not like St. John's defense is some revolving door like Georgetown's defense.

Sometimes, it comes down to extra-effort plays and grabbing rebounds. The Johnnies rank 258th nationally in defensive rebounding percentage, and having to defend for a full 50 seconds is far more difficult than defending for 30 seconds.

When the entire team gets called out by name by a national-title-winning head coach, two things can happen: either the entire team will give up and not care about the remainder of the season, or the team will show a different level of intensity and fight.

I think we'll see the latter. I don't think we'll see another letdown from a Pitino-coached squad. It just seems like the classic Pitino move, dropping a bunch of quotes to get people scrambling and then we'll see a huge follow-up game from his team.

While Georgetown isn't DePaul bad, it's not much better. The Hoyas' only conference win came over the Blue Demons and since, they've lost nine consecutive Big East games.

Although it's the first season, people expected more from Ed Cooley in D.C., and the early returns don't look strong. Georgetown enters play at 8-17 overall and 1-13 in conference play.

The Hoyas have two main struggles, and the first one comes on the defensive end, ranking a brutal 307th in defensive efficiency. That's not only the Big East's worst defense — it's one of the worst in college basketball. It's a far cry from the type of style we're used to seeing from Cooley-coached teams during his Providence days.

Lack of rim protection is a huge problem for Georgetown, as it's posting a bottom-five ranking in 2-point field goal percentage. Supreme Cook is a fine big man, but he's a backup on a good team instead of a starter on a bad team.

Beyond Cook, it's a bunch of younger guys like Drew Fielder, who isn't ready for physical Big East play. Unfortunately, the lack of depth has forced him to play a ton.

Although the defense is poor, Georgetown flashes some offensive promise, led by sophomore guard Jayden Epps. Epps leads the conference in scoring with 19.9 points per game on 37% shooting and 31% from 3.

The poor efficiency numbers and lack of winning turns the lofty-scoring into empty calorie stats from Epps.

Besides Epps, Dontrez Styles and Jay Heath will need some solid scoring numbers to beat St. John's. You need more than one player stepping up to win conference games, and it's usually on Epps carrying the charge.

I'm expecting a strong effort from St John's, as I alluded to earlier.

Laying 10 points on the road isn't some easy task to cover, but the Hoyas have lost four of their past six by more than 10.

Seeing them get thrashed by double-digits is nothing new, and won't come as a huge surprise.

Pick: St. John's -10 (Play to -10.5)