Marquette responded to a tough loss at home to Villanova by knocking off a good Providence team with relative ease. They now get to go toe to toe with Steve Lavin’s Red Storm. D’Angelo Harrison and Co. have come on in recent weeks, winning three in a row prior to a 63-60 road loss at Creighton which saw the Blue Jays receive their biggest home scare to date this year.
Lavin’s crew is digging in defensively, currently ranking 42nd nationally there. They are taking care of the basketball thanks to the point guard play of freshman Rysheed Jordan. The Philadelphia native is long at 6’4 and while he can at times make mistakes which reflect his youth, his playmaking ability is quite apparent.
Jordan has also played great defensively. Creighton’s guards were non-existent the other night, and a lot of that has to do with the Jordan’s length to go along with the speedy Phil Greene.
Most importantly, however, is the play of St. John’s interior bodies. Orlando Sanchez, JaKarr Sampson and Chris Obekpa enable St. john’s to be one of the best shot blocking teams in America and their length could be disruptive in this game.
Davante Gardner is a really good interior scorer for the Golden Eagles. His 6’8, 290 lbs frame forces him to play under the rim so to speak, but he knows how to use his girth to create space and shots. St. John’s has plenty of bodies to throw his way, so it will be interesting to see how they handle that match-up.
These two squads met on the last day of the regular season a year ago, with Marquette winning by two in a low scoring, overtime game which saw Gardner get to the line nine times and finish with 10 points overall. Jamil Wilson also had a strong game that day, finishing with 14 points on 5-12 shooting.
But the key for Buzz Williams’ squad to get the road win here as 2.5 point underdogs will be how their guards play. Derrick Wilson has to be more of a factor and it would really help if 6’5 freshman JaJuan Johnson were also able to illustrate what made him such a hyped recruit coming out of high school. Williams inserted him into the starting lineup last game to try and get him going. This came after he did not play the previous three games, and he has only received 29 minutes total in the month of January.
Williams doesn’t have a ton of options to go with at the guard position. Todd Mayo and Jake Thomas are both capable role players. Mayo, in particular, is a veteran guy who has been through plenty of battles previously. He needs to play a role in this game without question.
I felt like the red Storm should be about 3-3.5 point favorites coming in here. they are at home and have been playing better of late. While coming off that tough Creighton loss could be a negative for them, the fact that they sit at 2-6 in conference play means they’ll get up for virtually every game from here on out.
If you can find this number down in the range of two, it might pose some value. but these are two evenly matched teams who will no doubt slug it out i what should be another defensive minded battle. The total is sitting at 133, a seemingly high number given what we know about these squads.
Keep an eye on the St. John’s interior defense and how well they can create transition opportunities. Given the Red Storm guard depth, they should look to get out in what would preferably be a more up tempo game for them, as scoring in the half court against this Marquette team could be a major challenge.
