Saint John’s Red Storm vs. Kentucky Wildcats College Basketball prediction, preview
Saturday’s monster college hoops slate gets underway with an enticing one on a neutral floor in Atlanta. Rick Pitino will take on the team he formerly coached to National Championships, the Kentucky Wildcats, as the head coach of Saint John’s.
From a metrics standpoint, these teams rank pretty similarly — slight edge to the Red Storm on offense, and almost identical on defense. That said, I’m not a fan of what I’ve seen from Kentucky this season. Tossing out the smaller games, Kentucky is 1-4 against legitimate competition this season, and are coming off its big win.
The Wildcats lost as a road underdog to Louisville, a neutral favorite to Michigan State, a home favorite to North Carolina and got smoked by Gonzaga on a “neutral” in Nashville. Kentucky was also getting dominated at home by Indiana last Saturday night, but pulled the game out with a huge second half. Maybe the comeback gives Mark Pope’s squad some momentum, but I feel like the Wildcats are the team we’ve seen in 4.5 of those five big games, which hasn’t been good.
Saint John’s is basically the same team as Kentucky, but I believe more veteran, more disciplined and better coached. I’ll trust Pitino to pull one out against his former school on a neutral court. I broke this game down in further depth on the DKN Daily Bets podcast, which you can listen to right here.
