Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks vs St. John's Red Storm Prediction, Odds and Picks for Tomorrow, 03/20/25

One of the late window games on Thursday takes us to Providence, Rhode Island for our Omaha Mavericks vs St. John’s Red Storm prediction. Heading into selection Sunday, Omaha was one of those teams I liked as a sneaky upset pick. Once the bracket came out, however, it seemed like they were in one of the worst possible matchups for their style of play. The Johnnies had an historic season under Rick Pitino, and their helter skelter, everybody-guards-everybody style of defense is a thing of beauty. Omaha is completely unprepared for what is about to happen to them, and I fully expect the Red Storm to roll.

Omaha is a perfect representation of what the Summit League was like this year: lots of offense, and no defense to be found. Summit scores were regularly in the 80s and 90s, and Omaha checks in at an unsightly 252nd in defensive efficiency, per KenPom. They do not do anything well defensively except rebound, but St. John’s is a top 10 team in terms of offensive rebounding, and I’m guessing the Johnnies get the better of the Mavs on the glass. Omaha has a couple of talented scorers, but again, this isn’t a matchup you can feel optimistic about for them. The only power conference measuring stick we have for Omaha is a 32-point loss to Iowa State, a team that helpfully profiles similarly to St. John’s. The Red Storm should be able to score at will in the paint against the tournament’s worst 2-pt percentage defense. I’m sad Omaha didn’t get a more favorable draw, because this team has some fun players, but this one is going to be all Johnnies. Give me St. John’s to cover this large number.

Omaha vs St. John’s prediction: St. John’s -18.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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