Stony Brook vs. St. John's Tuesday college basketball odds: Rick Pitino has been profitable for bettors in season openers

I'm pretty sure that I've never written a story involving Stony Brook men's basketball, but the Seawolves are the opponents Tuesday night in the season debut for St. John's under legendary Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino. The Red Storm are -18.5 on the SportsLine consensus. The game is at the on-campus Carnesecca Arena in Queens as opposed to Madison Square Garden, although the Johnnies will play at the Garden quite often now that Pitino is on the bench.

Since 2005, Pitino has a 12-3 against-the-spread record in season openers, better than every other active coach in the nation other than James Madison's Mark Byington (11-0 ATS after upsetting Michigan State on Monday) and Clemson's Brad Brownell (14-4 ATS). Pitino is 30-4 straight up all-time in season openers and will face Stony Brook for the first time in his career.

St. John's might never get back to its Chris Mullin heyday, but there's nowhere to go but up for the program after missing the NCAA Tournament in each of the past four seasons and finishing with a losing record in the Big East in each othem. Former coach Mike Anderson was in charge all four seasons but was canned last March. The school immediately targeted Pitino after he led Iona to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons.

Pitino became a national coaching name with his first Big East stop at Providence from 1985-87. He would lead the Friars, Kentucky and Louisville all to at least one Final Four, joining John Calipari as the only coaches to lead three schools the national semifinals. Calipari did it at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky, but the first two were eventually vacated for recruiting violations. St. John's has been to two Final Fours in its history and has reached only three NCAA Tournaments since 2002. Pitino has won two national titles and coached in 23 NCAA Tournaments.

Are the Johnnies a Big Dance team this year? The 2022-23 club finished 18-15 and the Red Storm received 47 votes in the preseason AP Top 25 to land in the others receiving votes category. The only lettermen back from last year are star big man and captain Joel Soriano and seldom-used Drissa Traore. Soriano was the 2023 Big East Most Improved Player and had 25 double-doubles, the most by a Johnnie since Walter Berry had 28 in 1985-86, and the second most in the nation. Soriano was named to the preseason All-Big East first team.

One of 12 newcomers is Penn transfer Jordan Dingle, the 2023 Ivy League Player of the Year who was second nationally in scoring at 23.4 points per game. Guard RJ Luis, a transfer from UMass who averaged 11.5 points and 4.6 last season for the Minutemen, will not make his St. John's debut due to an injury. Fellow guard Cruz Davis (left hand), who came with Pitino from Iona, is expected to play.

The Red Storm are +1000 to win the Big East, behind Creighton (+240), Marquette (+260), UConn (+300) and Villanova (+650). The Johnnies are +900 to make the Final Four and +4000 to win it all. 

St. John's has won nine straight season openers and 19 straight games overall at Carnesecca Arena.

Stony Brook finished 11-22 last year and 6-12 in the CAA. It was picked to finish ninth in the league this year. Tyler Stephenson-Moore is the top returning starter and was named Preseason Second-Team All-Coastal Athletic Association. 

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