Daily Archives: February 14, 2011

>St. John’s vs. Marquette

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>St. John’s has put together one heck of a tournament resume in their first year under Steve Lavin.  They’re one of the few teams that have defeated four top-15 teams, three of which came in blowouts.

The Red Storm is led by three seniors who average double figures in scoring.  Dwight Hardy leads the team in scoring at 16.6 ppg and also hauls down three boards a game and dishes out two dimes.  Justin Brownlee is scoring at a 12.6 point per game clip and is tied for second with five boards per game.  D.J. Kennedy is the last senior in double digits throwing in 10 ppg and leads the team in rebounding with over five and a half per contest.

Marquette is ending an extremely tough stretch of its schedule, facing eight ranked teams in their last 10 contests.  They’ve won four of those, but are led by four upperclassmen so it should help them in the future.  Darius Johnson-Odom leads the team with over 16 points per game and is also pulling down three rebounds.  Jimmy Butler is pouring in 15 points a game and second in rebounds with 6.3, while Jae Crowder is putting up 13 ppg and leads the team in rebounding with 6.6 a game.  Dwight Buycks is averaging 10 ppg and leads the team in assists, dishing out four dimes a game.  Prediction: Red Storm wins straight up 75-70

>Michigan State vs, Ohio State

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>Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Michigan State would have a 6-6 conference record and only a 14-10 record overall.  Ok, you’re a liar so put your hand down, but that has been the craziness of this years’ college basketball season.  Michigan State has been struggling like nobody’s business the last seven games, losing five of them and eeking out a one-point overtime win at Indiana.  The Spartans were expected to challenge the Buckeyes for the conference crown, if not win it themselves. 

Michigan State is led by three players who are averaging double digits this year.  Kalin Lucas leads the team with 16 ppg and is averaging 3.5 assists per game.  Durrell Summers is putting up 13 ppg and over four rebounds per game.  Draymond Green is averaging 13 points per game and leads the team in rebounding, with just over eight per contest.

Ohio State is coming off of its first loss of the season, a road loss at Wisconsin.  The dreams of recreating what the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers did — the most recent Division I-A team to go through a season unbeaten — were vaporized by the Badgers’ scalding shooting in the second half.

The Buckeyes are led by stud freshman Jared Sullinger, who has probably exceeded everyone’s expectations, maybe even his own.  He leads the squad with 18 ppg and over 10 boards per game.  But he is not the only OSU player putting up big numbers.  Three others (David Lighty, William Buford and Jon Diebler) also average double figures, but none like Sullinger.  Buford puts up nearly 14 ppg, Lighty with 12 and Diebler, 11.  Prediction: Buckeyes win big 80-65