Rick Pitino was left outside the NCAA Tournament looking in last season but in Year 2 of his tenure, the 72-year-old has No. 12 St. John’s in first place in the Big East and off to a 19-3 start. On Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, he has a chance to equal last year’s win total, but it won’t be easy with No. 11 Marquette in town.
While the Johnnies haven’t made the tournament since Chris Mullin was leading the program in 2019, the Golden Eagles have yet to miss it under head coach Shaka Smart. Now in his fourth year at Marquette, Smart has the program poised to head back to the big dance, this time looking to get past the Sweet 16. Though, before that, Smart and Pitino are both after the Big East title and with the Golden Eagles second in the conference, this game will go a long way to deciding it.
Here’s how you can watch this big-time showdown on Tuesday night from MSG.
How to watch Marquette vs St. John’s
- Date: Tuesday, February 4
- Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
- Venue: Madison Square Garden
- How to Watch (TV): FS1
- Streaming: fubo TV
- Marquette record: 19-3 (10-1)
- St. John’s record: 18-4 (9-2)
Marquette vs. St. Johns odds, spread and total
Odds provided by FanDuel Sportsbook
Moneyline
- Marquette +128
- St. John’s -154
Spread
- Marquette +2.5 (-102)
- St. John’s -2.5 (-120)
Total
- 146.5 (over -110/under -110)
Marquette injury report
- N/A
St. John’s injury report
- Brady Dunlap, F: OUT (hand)
St. John’s and Marquette series history
- St. John’s all-time record vs. Marquette: 16-29
- Marquette 6-0 in last 6 meetings
Marquette vs. St. John’s prediction
For his entire career as a head coach, Rick Pitino’s teams have thrived off forcing turnovers and running in transition, which could turn this game into a track meet because Shaka Smart’s group plays the same way. While the Johnnies are one of the better teams in the country, forcing a turnover on 19% of opponent's possessions, the Golden Eagles are even better, ranking third in the country at 21%. Even worse for St. John’s, no team turns the ball over on a smaller percentage of their possessions than Marquette at 11%.
So, while Pitino’s group could struggle to get steals, they have another way to earn extra possessions, and that’s on the offensive glass. St. John’s is 20th in the country in offensive rebounding percentage and scores nearly 20% of its points on second chances, so if Marquette struggles on the boards, they could get punished. In their 77-69 loss to UConn on Saturday, the Golden Eagles were outrebounded 36-26, despite grabbing 17 offensive boards of their own.
MSG isn’t an easy place to play, and there is a chance that St. John’s just destroys Marquette on the offensive boards, but Shaka Smart’s team isn’t going to turn the ball over and let the snowball that is a fast-paced Rick Pitino team get rolling downhill. Kam Jones slid seamlessly into the role of on-ball creator vacated by Tyler Kolek and the Golden Eagles have plenty of experience in big games like this one. Pitino’s program is on the cusp of true Big East contention, but it hasn’t faced Marquette or UConn yet, and its lone conference loss is to Creighton, so I’ll take the Golden Eagles to win outright on the road.