College Hoops Picks Feb. 5, 2009: St. John's Red Storm @ Seton Hall Pirates

St. John's Red Storm (3-6, 12-9) at Seton Hall Pirates (2-6, 11-9)

Thursday, Feb. 5—9:00 PM EST

---

Preview

Both teams are having a tough year. The Red Storm (3-6, 12-9) have managed to win three conference games so far, but those wins have not been against strong opponents. They shocked the college hoops world with their upset over Notre Dame at the beginning of January, but then rattled off four losses before taking down Rutgers. Their only other win was over South Florida—the only team with a losing overall record at the start of conference play.

The Pirates (2-6, 11-9) started off conference play in a big slump—after losing their first six games, they have won two in a row over Georgetown and Rutgers. If Seton Hall can get by St. John's, they stand a very good chance of winning five in a row—after Thursday's game they face Rutgers again on Sunday before taking on DePaul on Tuesday.

By the Numbers

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
St. John's	12-9	3-6	8-7	127	93	67.7	65.4
Seton Hall	11-9	2-6	7-6	110	54	76.1	74.0

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG	TPG
St. John's	44.3	42.4	30.6	34.6	63.5	41.6	7.2	12.4	15.0
Seton Hall	44.0	43.3	30.4	32.4	73.4	38.2	8.5	12.8	12.5

---

Prediction

Current Line: Seton Hall -5.0

St. John's ATS: 8-7, 2-6 when underdog.
Seton Hall ATS: 7-6, 2-3 when favored.

Seton Hall has a chance to salvage what is left of their season. They have had a very tough schedule to date, but their three opponents that they face twice are Rutgers, St. John's, and South Florida. The only team missing from that equation is DePaul.

St. John's hasn't been playing fantastic basketball recently—there was hope that they could do something this season after their upset of Notre Dame, but since then, they have lost a lot of basketball and it hasn't been pretty. The Red Storm have an average scoring margin of -8.57 since their Irish upset. Take away their two wins, though, and that becomes -17.6.

The Pirates know they have the ability to turn their season around—it started with their win over the Hoyas, and they are going to keep it going for as long as possible.

Ryan's Pick: Seton Hall -5.0

*This article is also featured on CBBPlace.com*

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