St. John's Red Storm at UCONN Huskies 1/18/21 - College Basketball Picks & Predictions

The Saint John’s Red Storm travel on the road to the Gample Pavillion to take on the UConn Huskies. St. John’s has lost three of their last four, most recently falling on their home floor 73-71 to Marquette which dropped the Red Storm to 7-7 on the year. UConn has had COVID cancellations but when they’ve played they’ve been great winning their last four and starting off the year 7-1.

In their awaited return to the Big East, UConn has started off their year with a 4-1 start in conference falling only on the road to Creighton in overtime. The Huskies have been defensive-minded this season but have managed offensively averaging 73.1 points per game ranking 159th in the country in scoring offense. The Huskies are shooting 43.4% from the field as a team. 

Sophomore guard James Bouknight has been a stud for the Huskies this season, he was an All-AAC player last year and is on pace to recreate that in the Big East this year. Averaging team-highs in points with 20.3 and pulling down 5.3 rebounds per game, Bouknight is shooting 45.1% from the field. Junior point guard RJ Cole has been a nice piece this season as well averaging 9.6 points and dishing out 3.8 assists per game. 

St. Johns has struggled in conference play but in no fault of their uptempo and lethal offense that is averaging 79 points per game ranking 65th in the country in scoring offense. As a team, the Red Storm are shooting 44.7% from the field and they love to share the ball dishing out 17.4 assists per game as a team, the 26th most in the country. 

Sophomore guard Julian Champagnie is the clear #1 scoring option for St. Johns, he’s averaging 20.7 points on 45.8% shooting. Champagnie can score from anywhere, he’s taking 6 threes per game and making 41.7% of those attempts. He also leads the team in rebounding with 7.3 per game. Freshman point guard Posh Alexander has emerged as a solid player, dishing out a team-high 4.5 assists and adding 9.3 points per game.

St. John’s and their less than impressive record this season can be attested to their poor defense, which allows 78.5 poitns per game ranking 316th in the country in scoring defense. Opposing teams are shooting 48% from the field and 37.4% from beyond the arc, both rank well-outside the top-300 in the nation. UConn is stout defensively allowing just 61.8 points per game ranking 24th in the country in scoring offense. The Huskies have taken away the three with opposing teams taking 18 per game and making just 28.7% of those.