In round two of the NCAA Tournament, the Arkansas Razorbacks will face the St. John’s Red Storm in Providence, RI. Both of these teams enjoyed brilliant second-half performances to win their first-round matchups. Here, only one of them will enjoy the upper hand in the final 20 minutes and only one team will come out of this Arkansas vs St. John’s clash with admission to the Sweet 16.
At the time of this writing, St. John’s is favored by 5.5. Meanwhile, the college basketball betting odds for this contest have seen oddsmakers set the total at 140.5. Here, you will find a full preview of this matchup between opponents from the SEC and Big East in the second round of March Madness.
Can Arkansas Upset St. John’s?
The Arkansas Razorbacks put together an impressive start to the second half of their first-round win over the Kansas Jayhawks. John Calipari’s team scored the first eight points of the second half to go up by double-digits and the Razorbacks managed to hang on despite a late comeback attempt by the Jayhawks. Now Calipari will take on another legendary coach in Rick Pitino of St. John’s with a spot in the Sweet 16 hanging in the balance.
Finding three-point shooting from someone other than Johnell Davis will be key if Arkansas wants to advance to the Sweet 16. Davis went 4-9 from three-point range against Kansas, while the rest of the Razorbacks shot just 2-15 from beyond the arc. Someone else needs to help the Hogs spread the floor against this elite St. John’s defense if Arkansas is going to have a chance to move on.
St. John’s Looks to Shut Down Arkansas
The St. John’s Red Storm were in the middle of a tight game halfway through their first-round matchup against the Omaha Mavericks. But the Johnnies pulled away in the second half of that contest, with Rick Pitino’s team advancing comfortably into this round. Here, St. John’s will bring its elite defense into battle against an Arkansas team whose offense had their way with Kansas on Thursday.
The defense of St. John’s is a constant for them but the question for the Red Storm will be whether they can knock down enough shots to advance here. As we saw against Omaha, St. John’s is prone to scoring droughts that can keep lesser opponents in contention. If those droughts pop up in this game, we could be in for a close contest in this matchup between the 10-seed and 2-seed in the West Region.
Arkansas vs St. John’s Prediction
St. John’s -5.5 (-110) over Arkansas
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- St. John’s has the best defense in the country according to Kenpom.
- Arkansas beating a bad Kansas team doesn’t impress us very much.
