Pittsburgh Panthers at St. John’s Red Storm, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Saturday, February 19, 2011, 12:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN
Opening Line: Pitt -3
Current Line: Pitt -3.5
Opening Total: 134
Current Total: 135
Money Line: Pitt -165 / St. John’s +145
The fourth-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers (24-2,12-1 Big East) are expected to have leading scorer Ashton Gibbs back in the lineup on Saturday when they visit the St. John’s Red Storm (16-9, 8-5) at Madison Square Garden. The Panthers (-3.5) will bring their perfect 6-0 road record into MSG along with Gibbs, who has missed the last three games with a strained MCL injury.
Pitt was able to go 3-0 without Gibbs, including impressive road wins at West Virginia (71-66) and Villanova (57-54) before topping South Florida 67-55 at home on Wednesday. The Panthers surprisingly struggled at times against the Bulls but went on a 14-2 run to pull away in the second half. Brad Wanamaker and Nasir Robinson each scored 13 points to lead the team.
St. John’s will present an interesting challenge for Pittsburgh as a team that has gone 4-5 against Top 25 teams this season but beaten three Top 10 teams at the Garden. None of those statement wins against Notre Dame, Duke and Connecticut were even close, with the Red Storm beating them by an average of nearly 17 points. In fact, they are playing arguably their best basketball of the season with their second three-game winning streak in conference play.
The team has won five of six games overall since losing three in a row, starting with a huge 93-78 victory against the Blue Devils. St. John’s is riding a four-game winning streak against Big East opponents, including two straight on the road at Cincinnati (59-57) and Marquette (80-68). The Red Storm have covered their last three games but have not beaten Pittsburgh since 2006.
The Panthers have won the last five meetings with St. John’s both straight-up and against the spread, and they are also riding a five-game winning streak overall. Their only loss in the last 15 games came at home with the Fighting Irish pulling off a 56-51 upset on January 24 as 10.5-point underdogs. Pitt has covered four of its last five road games since beating Providence 83-79 in its first league game away from home back on January 4. The UNDER is 4-1 in those games.
The Red Storm will be playing at home for just the second time in five games and have won their last three games SU as underdogs. Dwight Hardy is peaking at the right time for St. John’s and might be able to take advantage of Gibbs in his return. Hardy is averaging almost 28 points in the last four games following a 28-point effort against the Golden Eagles on Tuesday.
Now that you have read this Big East college basketball betting preview featuring St. John’s & Pittsburgh, check out the NCAA basketball odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.
