The Villanova Wildcats take on the St. John's Red Storm in New York, NY. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network.
St. John's is favored by 7 points on the spread with a moneyline of -325. The total is set at 146 points.
Here are my Villanova vs. St. John's predictions and college basketball picks for January 11, 2025.
Villanova vs St. John's Prediction
My Pick: St. John's -9.5 or Better
My Villanova vs St. John's best bet is on the Red Storm spread, with the best odds currently available at DraftKings. For all of your college basketball bets, be sure to find the best lines by using our live NCAAB odds page.
Villanova vs St. John's Odds
| Villanova Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
+7 -110 | 146 -112 / -108 | +260 |
| St. John's Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
-7 -110 | 146 -112 / -108 | -325 |
- Villanova vs St. John's spread: St. John's -7
- Villanova vs St. John's over/under: 146 points
- Villanova vs St. John's moneyline: St. John's -325, Villanova +260
- Villanova vs St. John's best bet: St. John's -9.5 or Better
Spread
Villanova has been winning games of late, but it's due for a letdown. The Johnnies are the perfect team to take advantage.
Moneyline
With my pick on St. John's, there's little value on the moneyline.
Over/Under
I have no pick on the total in this game.
My Pick: St. John's -9.5 or Better
Villanova vs St. John's College Basketball Betting Preview
Villanova Basketball
On Thanksgiving weekend, it was a foregone conclusion that Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune was on a seat so hot that he was sure to be fired at season's end.
Having failed to make the NCAA Tournament in his first two seasons, Villanova was 4-4 at the time, with losses to Columbia, a bad Virginia team and rival Saint Joe's on the ledger.
Since then, Neptune and the Cats have ripped off seven of eight, only losing on the road at Creighton.
Conventual wisdom would suggest that a third straight season without a trip to the Big Dance would doom Neptune. As we stand in mid-January, his seat then remains hot.
Zero of the 53 bracketologists aggregated at Bracket Maxtrix consider the Wildcats in the NCAA Tournament field. ESPN's Joe Lunardi has Villanova as the seventh team out of the field with work to do.
Playing in the Big East, the Cats will have their chance to do the necessary work. If they continue to play as well as they have over the last month, the case will get better and better.
Villanova ranks in the top five nationally in offensive efficiency, largely on the back of do-everything big man Eric Dixon. He leads the country in points per game, with his ability to post up and make 47% from long range creating headaches for opposing coaches.
To stay successful, Villanova's defense needs to start creating headaches of its own. The Cats rank 168th defensively, easily the worst in the Big East.
St. John's Basketball
The Rick Pitino experiment at St. John's is working as planned. The Johnnies are a top-20 team by KenPom's metrics, boasting the sixth-best defensive efficiency in the country.
Pitino's roster is full of athletic, high-motor players who make every possession on the Red Storm's end of the floor a struggle to find a decent look at the basket.
Kadary Richmond, previously of Syracuse and Seton Hall, is one of the more versatile and skilled defenders in the Big East, creating major challenges for any opposing backcourt.
Offensively, the Johnnies attack the paint. Only two of the 360-plus teams in college basketball score a higher percentage of their points via the 2-point basket. Pitino is an old-school coach with an old-school approach. His Red Storm are going to attack off the bounce, get the ball up to the rim and hammer the offensive glass.
Playing St. John's for 40 minutes is a grueling endeavor and not for the faint of heart.
Villanova vs. St. John's Betting Analysis
I wrote the preview for this same game last season. I noticed that the trends and numbers pointed towards Villanova, but I couldn't stomach taking Neptune to win or cover against Pitino.
Last season, they faced each other twice, with the home team favored by 3.5 points each time. St. John's won both games by 20.
It's not as simple as one coach outsmarting the other. Pitino's teams are designed to make life difficult for opposing offenses. He's long cultivated teams that play intense pressure defense and force even the most discerning teams into mistakes.
The Villanova backcourt will have its hands full. Last season, Jhamir Brickus and Tyler Perkins were playing for La Salle and Penn, respectively. They won't face a tougher test in the Big East than this St. John's pressure.
All-American Dixon is a great safety valve, but if he's unable to get the ball in the spots where he's most successful, Villanova's offense gets clunky.
Even worse, the Villanova defense has been porous at times. St. John's is relentless attacking the paint this season and should be able to build and sustain a lead in this game.
