Since Villanova beat St. John's by 15 points in their first meeting, the Wildcats have only won two out of seven games, both coming against Georgetown. Five of those loses have been by seven or more points. St. John's will be looking for revenge after that embarrassing loss and, surprisingly, they have a top-50 defense in terms of efficiency. The Red Storm are shooting 58.2 percent inside the arc and have the edge on the boards. They'll try to push the pace as they're the second fastest team in terms of pace. This game is also being played at MSG. I'm on St. John's.

The first year post-Jay Wright has gone quite badly for Villanova, although not having Justin Moore yet this season certainly hasn't helped, and he's currently joined among the injured by Jordan Longino. The Cats have lost five of seven and nearly lost at home to pathetic Georgetown last time out. Yes, Nova did beat St. John's by 15 back on Dec. 21 in Philadelphia. However, Longino was healthy then (13 points, two rebounds, two steals) and the Johnnies have since altered their rotation and looked much better in back-to-back double-digit wins over Butler and at No. 6 UConn. Increased minutes for Rafael Pinzon and AJ Storr, two of the team’s top shooters, has created more spacing and balance on the offensive end.