College Hoops Picks Feb. 1, 2009: South Florida Bulls @ St. John's Red Storm

South Florida Bulls (2-6, 7-13) at St. John's Red Storm (2-6, 11-9)

Sunday, Feb. 1—2:00 PM EST

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Preview

South Florida (2-6, 7-13) travel to New York to take on St. John's (2-6, 11-9) in an attempt to defeat their second Big East team of the season.

The Bulls entered conference play as the only Big East team with a losing record, but have since had a couple others join them (one of which is DePaul, who they have defeated twice this season).

St. John's is having a tough season—after losing their star player at the start of non-conference play, they rattled off nine wins in a row before facing some tougher opponents. They lost their final two non-conference games, and have gone 2-6 in Big East play.

The good news for the Red Storm, though, is that one of those wins came over Notre Dame, who is still ranked in the Top 25. The bad news is that they have lost by more than 20 a couple of times so far—and that's not a stat to be proud of.

By the Numbers

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
South Florida	7-13	2-6	11-8	147	28	62.0	64.9
St. John's	11-9	2-6	7-7	131	73	67.8	66.3

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG	TPG
South Florida	41.1	41.7	31.8	31.5	59.1	39.7	5.6	12.1	13.7
St. John's	44.2	42.7	30.3	34.4	63.5	41.5	7.3	12.5	15.2

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Prediction

Current Line: St. John's -2.5

South Florida ATS: 11-8, 7-4 when underdog
St. John's ATS: 7-7, 5-1 when favored

Both teams may be having terrible seasons, but at least St. John's can attribute it to their fallen star. The Red Storm have proven that they can win when called upon, while the Bulls have struggled for most of the season.

South Florida has done well against the spread when the underdog, but that is mostly because they have been the underdog by more than double-digit points. When the spread has been less than five points in either direction, South Florida is 2-4 ATS.

The Bulls are yet to have a spread this tight in Big East play, and there's a good reason why—they can't keep up with the rest of the Big East.

Ryan's Pick: St. John's -2.5

*All statistics for this article have come from StatSheet.com*

*This article is also featured on CBBPlace.com*