Michigan vs St. John's Game Preview and Prediction

Photo Credit: New York Times


The 1-0 St. John’s Red Storm take on the 2-0 Michigan Wolverines at 6:30 PM EST live from Madison Square Garden. 

Here comes Rick Pitino’s first real test on a NCAA tournament level type of team. Part of Pitino choosing the Red Storm when deciding to come back to Division I basketball was that he wanted to play in a big-time arena. Madison Square Garden is going to be packed tonight. 

St John’s started off their year on Nov. 7 with a 90-74 win over Stony Brook. Senior forward Joel Soriano contributed 22 points alongside 11 rebounds and Graduate guard Daniss Jenkins added 17 points and 8 assists. St. John’s shot the ball well: 51% from the field, 50% from three, and 91% at the charity stripe, while dominating the boards 43 total rebounds to 30. 

Michigan last played three days ago against Youngstown State. In a dominant 92-62 game four Michigan players ended in double figures. Olivier Nkamhoua had another double-double (17 pts, 10 reb, 4 ast), Redshirt Sophomore Will Tschetter produced 20 of his own on a perfect 8-8 from the field. 


What to Watch For:

Let’s start with St. John’s. How will Rick Pitino fare in a home environment at MSG? Will he be able to use the crowd for motivation and can he control them to help boost their team? Michigan is a large and physical team, Joel Soriano is going to be a key player for the Red Storm. Will he be able to control the paint and the key? Soriano and Jenkins’ pick-and-roll could prove to be deadly against Michigan. 


As for Michigan: Olivier Nkamhoua has been a star so far this season, use him. Let the offense run through him to start. Three-point-shooting is something they should improve on, outside of Nkamhoua and Tschetter no one shot the deep ball particularly well. Transfer student Tray Jackson from Seton Hall has gotten a bunch of minutes but not much production, so the Wolverines are still looking for him to explode. 


Predictions:

St John’s Wins: 74-67

I think St. John’s has the edge on the coaching side, but the rosters are very close in skill. I believe the atmosphere at MSG is going to be what the Johnnies are going to feed off of. 




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