College Hoops Picks: Cincinnati Bearcats @ St. John's Red Storm

Preview

After losing their only true point guard in the preseason, the Cincinnati Bearcats (2-4, 12-7) played well during their non-conference schedule, and there was talk of them being a bubble team for the Big Dance. While they defeated the likes of UAB and UNLV, they fell to Florida State, Xavier, and Memphis.

They started conference play off on the wrong foot—their only two wins have come by the way of two teams that are winless in conference play (DePaul and Rutgers), and they have fallen twice to Providence and once to both Marquette and Connecticut.

St. John's started conference play differently. After a disappointing 21-point loss to Providence, they bounced back to upset Notre Dame. They are yet to be victorious since their win over the Irish, though, having lost to Pittsburgh, Connecticut, and Villanova.

They also lost their senior leader—Anthony Mason, Jr.—at the beginning of the season to a torn tendon in his foot, but the Red Storm have managed to still put together an overall winning record.

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
Cincinnati	12-7	2-4	3-8	69	35	70.2	64.2
St. John's	10-7	1-4	6-5	123	80	69.1	65.9

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG
Cincinnati	42.4	40.3	33.6	32.4	67.3	43.8	5.9	15.0
St. John's	44.2	42.8	28.5	34.7	64.5	41.1	7.3	12.9

These two Big East foes stack up well against each other—they shoot similarly from the floor and charity stripe, and have comparable rebounds and steals per game. There are a few differences, though, that give a slight advantage of Cincinnati. The Bearcats average two more assists per game and shoot five percent better from beyond the arc, and have a scoring margin of six points versus three for the Red Storm.

Prediction

Current Line: St. John's -2.0

Cincinnati ATS: 3-8, 0-5 when underdog
St. John's ATS: 6-5, 4-0 when favored

St. John's has had a very tough conference play schedule so far, playing only one unranked team. Cincinnati, on the other hand, has not played great basketball recently (they only escaped DePaul by four points), and their lack of a true point guard is going to keep catching up with them as conference play progresses.

If St. John's wants to make it to the NCAA Tournament, they need to pull off this win (as well as wins in their following four games over Rutgers, West Virginia, South Florida, and Seton Hall).

Pick: St. John's -2.0

*This article is also featured on CFBPlace.com—and soon to be featured on CBBPlace.com*