NIT Tournament Picks: St. John's vs. Memphis Odds: March 17th 2010

St. John’s vs. Memphis
Free Pick: St. John’s +7 -110 odds
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Memphis goes from the National Runner-Up two years ago to the Sweet 16 last year to the NIT this year. I’m sure the Tigers are real fired up for this one and the fans are right behind them. This is a huge disappointment for Memphis. Coming into the season we knew things were not going to be anything like the past few seasons as the Tigers lost a ton of talent as well as head coach john Calipari who bolted for Kentucky in lieu of a possible investigation into the Memphis program whether he admits it or not. The Tigers still had a very good season, going 23-9 overall including 13-4 in C-USA. Those are normally good enough records for teams to get into the NCAA Tournament but not in this case. Taking nothing away from C-USA, who had some good talent in it this season, but it is still a weak conference and for Memphis to bow out in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament, is pretty bad plain and simple. The tigers had no quality wins this season as they went 1-7 against teams that are currently in the Big Dance and that one win was against Houston. Even worse is that two of those losses came against Houston as well. A second place finish in that conference is equivalent to where St. John’s finished in the Big East Conference in my opinion. St. John’s made a strong run toward the end of the season as it went 5-5 in its last 10 games. That included two losses to Marquette by two points each and a loss to Pittsburgh by just seven points. It also included wins over Louisville and Notre Dame as well as a blowout of Connecticut in the opening round of the Big East Tournament. The Red Storm did make progress this season as they went from playing in the CBI Tournament to playing in the NIT but rumors are that it still might not save head coach Norm Robert’s job. It is up to the players, who respect and play hard for Roberts, to keep winning and save his job. This game comes down to who wants it more and that is an easy answer. It will also help knowing that the Red Storm are much deeper and much more physical and that will wear down Memphis with a style it does not prefer to play with. Memphis continues to be overpriced as it is 7-16 ATS this season as a favorite while St. John’s is 5-1 ATS in its last six road games. 3* St. John’s Red Storm