St John's unbeaten start makes it the pick over shaky Syracuse

St John's has rolled through its first three games with ease, blowing out Colgate 90-59, Iona 104-65 and Monmouth NJ 78-63 to push its record to 3-0 and its winning streak to three games. Syracuse has been far less steady, falling 83-80 to Indiana at a neutral site before beating Central Conn 102-49 and New Haven 74-58 to sit at 2-1. The two meet in a non-conference game.

Versus grades both teams highly across its power, offense and defense categories, with St John's earning A+ marks in power and offense and an A on defense, while Syracuse carries matching A grades of its own. The gap shows up in the rankings instead. St John's sits 16th in Division I, 89 spots ahead of Syracuse at 105th, even though both programs have slid nine places since the preseason, St John's from No. 7 and Syracuse from No. 96.

Syracuse still leads the series 8-4 in 12 meetings since 2007, but St John's has won four straight in the matchup and Syracuse has not beaten the Red Storm since December 2013. St John's also arrives on an 11-game home winning streak dating to January 2026.

Versus projects an 80-74 St John's win, giving the Red Storm a 66 percent chance to come out on top.