By Charles Jay
The St. John’s Red Storm have had some rather shaky moments lately on the way to trying to prove their NCAA tournament worthiness. And after a couple of disappointing shooting efforts, they how that they can put some home cooking to work as they host the Duke Blue Devils in NCAA basketball betting action that is scheduled to begin at 2 PM ET on Sunday at Madison Square Garden. The game will be televised live on Fox Network, and the wagering will go on throughout the game with Live Betting Extra at Vietbet.
For Duke, this could be a landmark event, as coach Mike Krzyzewski needs just one more win to reach 1000 for his career. And he is going after it not at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but at the mecca of basketball.
St. John’s is 13-5 straight-up and 7-7 against the basketball point spread. And they might have been fortunate to be able to get by Marquette in their last outing. They have dropped five of their last six games to the number. Duke, which is ranked 5th by the Associated Press and sixth in the coaches’ poll, is 16-2 SU and 10-8 against the NCAA basketball odds.
Sometimes when you have a player who assumes the bulk of your scoring load, you have to sink or swim with him. Such is apparently the case with D’Angelo Harrison, the leading scorer for the Red Storm, who went ice cold against Marquette on Wednesday and found themselves losing ground in the second half. Harrison had made just two out of 16 shots and things looked bleak for St. John’s, which had lost its first three games in Big East play before beating Providence.
But Harrison hit some key free throws and Sir’Dominic Porter was able to chip in 15 points and a dozen rebounds as St. John’s pulled the game out by a 60-57 score.
The major area of concern for Vietbet customers backing the Red Storm is obvious, as Harrison has hit five of 28 shots over the last two games, and is dealing with a strained calf, but the positive part is that Steve Lavin’s club is well-drilled on defense. They have held ten of their last 13 opponents below 40% from the field.
Duke came up huge on the road at Louisville last Saturday, holding the Cardinals just below 30% from the field in a 63-52 victory. This came after horrible defensive efforts against N.C. State and Miami, who both shot better than 50%. No one is going to accuse Duke of having a bunch of defensive stoppers, but they DO have the guy who provides as good an inside game as anybody.
Coach K had better enjoy Jahlil Okafor while he can, because if there were odds posted this early, the freshman seven-footer would be the overwhelming favorite at Vietbet to be the first choice in the NBA Draft. He averages 18.6 points and 8.9 rebounds, but a major contribution on his part was not needed six days ago as Duke beat Pitt 79-65. Instead they got 22 points from Tyus Jones and ten rebounds from Quinn Cook out of the backcourt.
This is a very young Duke team, and as such they are going to be prone to mistakes and inconsistency, but for St. John’s to take advantage of the edge in experience they are simply going to have to get better shooting out of Harrison.
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