St. John's Will Slaughter Michigan On Monday In College Hoops

This will be my first of many pro-St. John's Red Storm (1-0) handicaps in the Rick Pitino era. St. John's is my alma mater and I'm going to talk myself into betting on the Johnnies. They open Madison Square Garden play Monday by hosting the Big Ten's Michigan Wolverines (2-0) for the Gavitt Tipoff Games.

First of all, the Big East is criminally underrated while the Big Ten is wildly overrated. The UConn Huskies are the reigning national champs. The last Big Ten team to win a national title was the 2000 Michigan State Spartans.

One of those title-winning Big East programs during this stretch is the 2012-13 Louisville Cardinals, coached by Pitino. Louisville had to vacate its championship and wins over a "sex scandal" that in no way skews how I view Pitino as a basketball coach.

Maybe 3% of TikTok users were alive when the Big Ten won its last national championship. In fact, the Big East has won EIGHT national titles since 2000. Yet, "fly over" country gets more teams in the Big Dance annually than the Big East.

Michigan Wolverines at St. John's Red Storm

Betting odds for Michigan at St. John's in the 2023 Gavitt Games as of Monday, Nov. 13th at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Speaking of "overrated", I'm happy to fade this overrated Michigan basketball program. Wolverines coach Juwan Howard has only won 20 games once in his four seasons in Ann Arbor.

Michigan missed the NCAA Tournament last season as well. In non-conference road games since 2019 (Howard's first season as Michigan's coach), the Wolverines are 1-4 with a -7.6 scoring margin.

Also, Pitino still has his fastball. He was 64-22 while coaching the Iona Gaels from 2020-23 after being exiled to the MAAC. Iona made two NCAA tourneys and won the MAAC twice in that span. The Gaels were 20-11 against the spread vs. non-conference foes in the Pitino era.

RICK PITINO GETS BIG MONEY NIL COMMITMENT FROM BILLIONAIRE THAT PREVIOUSLY HAD FALLING OUT WITH ST. JOHN’S

Furthermore, he hit the transfer portal hard this offseason and kept only one St. John's starter from last year's squad (C Joel Soriano). Pitino brought 2022-23 All-MAAC PG Daniss Jenkins with him from Iona and poached All-Ivy 1st-Team F Chris Ledlum from Harvard.

The St. John's Red Storm enjoying themselves on the bench vs. the Stony Brook Seawolves at Carnesecca Arena in Queens, New York. (Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports)

Soriano, Jenkins, and Ledlum are the Johnnies' leading scorers after their 1st game of the season. Both Soriano and Ledlum notched double-doubles in Tuesday's 90-74 win over Stony Brook. Jenkins threw a team-high eight assists, grabbed seven rebounds and scored 17 points himself.

Finally, the sharp money appears to be on St. John's. Per Pregame.com, more money is on the Johnnies whereas more bets are on Michigan at the time of writing. Oddsmakers are reacting to the cash column and St. John's has gone from -2 up to -2.5 at most sportsbooks.

My prediction: St. John's 67, Michigan 62

Bet slip for Michigan-St. John's on Monday, Nov. 13th from PointsBet.