Matt Rivers has another free pick for March Madness on St. John’s at home plus the points. They are getting 4.5 on the college basketball odds.

If Jim Calhoun’s Huskies man up and play the way they are capable of than this is going to be a long 40 minutes for the Red Storm. But I’m not so sure that Connecticut can just flip that switch right now after what has been a horrific season that will produce an NIT bid at best barring the Huskies run the table at the Garden, which ain’t happening.

The season overall has been a complete and total disaster for UCONN. There is no doubt a ton of talent led by a stud in Kemba Walker to go along with quality players like Robinson, Dyson, Edwards and Oriakhi but obviously talent did not win out with this team as they have turned into complete mush. The win at Villanova seemed to give the Huskies a chance to turn things around and it looked possible for a week or so but then bam they lost the last three games to the season and are now all done.

The Storm is not the most talented of teams but DJ Kennedy is a borderline stud and Hardy, Burrell and Horne among a few others are solid as well. This game is pretty much at home here at Madison Square Garden and there is no reason why the Storm can’t rise up and beat the underachieving Huskies.

I like Norm Stewart as a coach and think he has slowly but surely starting to turn this program back around a bit. Of course it still doesn’t come close to resembling the teams from the 80’s with Mullin and Berry and Wennington and Shelton Jones and others but this version of St. John’s does have an upside and we have seen that a fair amount of times this season.

The Johnies won at South Florida, Notre Dame and DePaul over the past few weeks and despite still being nothing more than average are competitive and being at home here should be just that in at least a cover.

For more information: Matt Rivers is the winningest all-time college basketball handicapper in terms of winning percentage.

Five of seven winning days and a 7-4-1 overall run. Also 1.5 million* of profit over the past 52 days. That’s short-term profit and long term profit.

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