Baylor vs St. John’s Odds, Predictions & Player Props (Nov 21)

• The #13 Baylor Bears face the #22 St John’s Red Storm Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship on Thursday night
• Baylor has rattled off three straight wins since being embarrassed by Gonzaga on opening night while the Johnnies are 4-0
• See the Baylor vs St John’s odds, pick, and predictions for Nov. 21 in Nassau

The #13 Baylor Bears (3-1, 1-0 neutral, 3-1 ATS) and #22 St John’s Red Storm (4-0, 0-0 neutral, 3-1 ATS) kick off the 2024 Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship on Thursday night in Nassau (7:00 pm ET). Since getting obliterated by Gonzaga (101-63 away) in their season opener, the Bears have responded with a trio of SU and ATS wins . The Johnnies enter on a four-game win streak, all at home, but find themselves slight underdogs in tonight’s Baylor vs St John’s odds.

Baylor vs St John’s Odds

The Bears are 2.5-point neutral-court favorites tonight Nassau and -145 on the moneyline in Thursday’s college basketball odds. The Johnnies come back as +125 underdogs to win straight-up. The game total is sitting at 152.5 O/U with the over slightly favored at -115.

ESPN BET

Offer

T&Cs

Bet $10 & Get $100 + 30 Days of ESPN+

Must manually enter promo code DIME to claim offer.

Must be 21+, offer available in MI, NJ, PA, WV only.

LOCK IN PROMO

CODE: DIME

CODE: DIME

SIGNUP OFFER

USE PROMO CODE
DIME

BET $10, GET $100
+ 30 DAYS OF ESPN+

GET OFFER NOW

The Bears lost four of their top-five scorers from last season (Ja’Kobe Walter, RayJ Dennis, Jalen Bridges, and Yves Missi) and the fifth, Langston Love, is out with a knee injury. Scott Drew won big in the transfer portal, though, grabbing both Miami forward Norchad Omier (the #5 transfer available, per ESPN) and Duke guard Jeremy Roach (#12), while also grabbing the #3 recruit in the nation (two-guard VJ Edgecombe).

The chemistry certainly wasn’t there yet in the Gonzaga loss but the last three games have looked much better. A 72-67 neutral-court win over #16 Arkansas (rated 33rd at KenPom) was followed up by routs of no. 111 Sam Houston (104-67) and no. 300 Tarleton (104-41).

Baylor is clearly going to have solid depth this season; despite hitting the century mark in each of its last two games, no one player score more than 20 points in either. Omier currently leads the team in scoring at just 13.3 PPG while seven Bears in total are averaging at least 8.8 PPG and 23.5 MPG.

As is the norm for Rick Pitino teams, the Johnnies also saw a ton of turnover from last season. Only one of the team’s top-seven scorers returns (RJ Luis). Predictably, Pitino landed even bigger fish in the transfer portal, specifically the top transfer available, Seton Hall point guard Kadary Richmond, who averaged 15.7 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 5.1 APG for the Pirates last year.

The Johnnies have shiny 4-0 record, which includes an 85-71 drubbing of New Mexico (59th at KenPom). But they have yet to play outside of New York City.

BAY vs STJ Player Props

Player props from ESPN Bet on Nov. 21. Check out SBD’s ESPN Bet app review.

As expected, the Baylor/St John’s player props are fairly clustered. Omier has the highest point total at 16.5 but all eight players on the board are at 12.5 or higher.

Omier also has the highest rebound total at 8.5 while Richmond and Johnnies teammate Deivon Smith have the highest assist prop at 4.5 apiece.

Baylor vs St John’s Predictions

If there is a home-court advantage to be had tonight, it’s going to be on Baylor’s side. This is a homecoming for the Bahamian Edgecombe, who was born in Bimini and lived in the Bahamas until ninth grade. The Bears are also considerably more battle-tested and road-tested at this point, having faced two top-25 teams already, including a true road game in Spokane.

Pitino has undoubtedly assembled a talented roster but the Bears are deeper, and I expect that – plus their slight edge in chemistry at this point – to win out in the end.

BAY vs STJ picks:

• Baylor moneyline (-145)
• Over 152.5 (-115)