Marquette vs St. John's Prediction, Odds & Best Bet for March 9 Big East Tournament (Golden Eagles Soar in Blowout)

Marquette vs St. John's (NY) Game Info

• 2022-23 NCAA Basketball Big East Tournament Game
• No. 6 Marquette (25-6, 17-3 Big East) vs. St. John's (NY) (18-14, 7-13 Big East)
• Date: Thursday, March 9, 2023
• Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
• Venue: Madison Square Garden -- New York City, New York
• Coverage: Fox Sports 1

The 2023 Big East Conference Tournament quarterfinals are here, which means top-seeded Marquette will see its first action of the tournament as they take on a No. 8 St. John's team that just defeated No. 9 Butler on Wednesday.

Marquette vs St. John's (NY) Odds & Spread

• All college basketball betting lines, odds and prop bets are from FanDuel Sportsbook.
• Moneyline: MARQ: (-285) | STJOHN: (+230)
• Spread: MARQ: -6.5 (-120) | STJOHN: +6.5 (-102)
• Total: 161.5 -- Over: (-110) | Under: (-110)

This isn't going to surprise anyone — Marquette are massive favorites. At +320 on the moneyline an upset isn't out of the question for St. John's, but the 8.5-point spread suggests we're more likely to see a blowout. The 161.5-point over/under does point to a high-scoring blowout, at least.

Marquette vs St. John's (NY) Betting Trends

• Marquette is 19-12-0 against the spread this season.
• The Golden Eagles' ATS record as 6.5-point favorites or more is 9-8.
• There have been 17 Marquette's games (out of 31) that hit the over this year.
• St. John's (NY)'s record against the spread is 14-17-0.
• The Red Storm are 3-5 as 6.5-point underdogs or more.
• St. John's (NY) has seen 15 of its 31 games go over the point total.

Marquette Rank	Marquette AVG		St. John's (NY) AVG	St. John's (NY) Rank
14th	81.0	Points Scored	77.6	47th
217th	71.3	Points Allowed	75.3	318th
333rd	28.3	Rebounds	37.1	6th
280th	7.3	Off. Rebounds	11.5	9th
43rd	8.8	3pt Made	5.8	323rd
4th	17.9	Assists	15.4	37th
46th	10.5	Turnovers	13.3	310th

Marquette vs St. John's (NY) Prediction & Pick

St. John's plays at the sixth-fastest pace in the country (76.1 possessions per game), and Marquette ranks an above-average 71st (72.3 per game) in pace as well. Marquette is much more efficient with those possessions though, ranking No. 10 in the nation with 81.0 points per game to St. Johns' 77.6 (33rd).

Those marks, though, clearly suggest that we're in for a shootout here, and that's what we saw the first two times these sides met this year. The first game saw 181 points scored (a 96-85 win for Marquette) and the second had 190 (96-94 Marquette).

I'm not too concerned with the fact that the Red Storm kept that last game so close either, as they shot an unsustainable 50% from 3-point range compared to a more average 35.5% for Marquette. Neither team has defended the arc well this season (opponents shoot 34.9% against St. John's and 35.9% against Marquette) and Marquette has been much better offensively on the long ball, ranking 105th at 35.4% compared to 224th at 33.1% for St. John's.

Prediction: Marquette 90 | St. John's 80

Marquette vs St. John's (NY) Best Bet

That difference in 3-pointers in their last game is really what's creating the betting value today. This matchup is not nearly as close as that last game made it seem, and considering it was also the last time Marquette played, I think it's too fresh in people's minds.

Variance is real, especially when the team that matches up as a worse 3-point side is the one that gets so much hotter. If both teams shot the more reasonable 35.5% that Marquette did from deep it would have been a 96-85 win instead.

The rest factor shouldn't be huge here, as yesterday's blowout allowed St. John's to rest their starters some, but this is still a seriously lopsided spot.

Best Bet: Alternate Spread: Marquette -11.5 (+134)

Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.