The No. 22 St. John’s Red Storm host the No. 3 UConn Huskies on Friday night in a heavyweight Big East clash.
The pregame narrative: As a whole, the Big East isn’t as feared as usual this season. But the Huskies and Red Storm are the clear-cut best teams, which makes for a superb primetime matchup at Madison Square Garden. UConn and St. John’s are a combined 22-1 in conference play.
Check out my college basketball same-game parlay UConn vs. St. John’s picks, featuring prop bets on Solo Ball and Zuby Ejiofor.
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UConn vs. St. John’s picks
SGP: Ball 2+ threes | Ejiofor 15+ points | UConn +3.5 (+325)
Ball 2+ threes (-190): I wish I could ask him myself … but what on earth happened to Ball?
Last year, as a sophomore, the guard led the Big East in 3-point shooting (41.4% on 6.8 attempts). Fast forward to now, and he’s cratered to 28.7% shooting from deep.
Here’s the good news: We’ve seen what he’s capable of, and he hasn’t shied away from putting up shots.
-> See player props for No. 14 Kansas vs. No. 11 Texas Tech!
Ball still leads the Huskies in 3-point attempts (6.5/game) and is 12-10 vs. this prop. He has at least five attempted 3s in 20 of 22 games.
And in his past four matchups, Ball has canned 11 triples. Not too shabby.
Last season against St. John’s, Ball cashed this bet both times while shooting 6-for-16 from deep. Here’s hoping he can channel that version of himself.
College basketball prop pick
Ejiofor 15+ points (-127): UConn’s defence is a tough one to crack, and the best way to break through is at the free throw line.
- The Huskies allow a 40.8% free-throw rate (ratio of free-throw attempts versus field-goal attempts), which ranks 299th in NCAA Division I, according to KenPom.com.
- Ejiofor’s 81.2% free-throw rate (i.e., 81.2 free-throw attempts for every 100 field-goal attempts) is the 18th-highest rate in the country.
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The 6-foot-9 forward isn’t doing a Reggie Miller impression at the line, but he’s shooting a respectable 69.6%. At an average of 7.6 free-throw attempts, that certainly raises his floor as a scorer.
Ejiofor went 1-1 vs. this line when facing UConn last year, scoring 29 points across the two matchups (13-of-15 from the line).
In his past 10 games, Ejiofor is 7-3 vs. this prop while averaging 18.0 points.
Huskies/Red Storm ATS prediction
UConn +3.5 (-230): I think -136 odds are playable for Connecticut on the moneyline and would consider that for a straight wager.
But for this SGP, banking some points with the road favourites still puts us in a good spot on the ticket’s overall price.
UConn has all the factors I look for in a March Madness contender, which is why I like its chances to win (or at least keep this really close):
- Stellar defence. The Huskies rank sixth in the country in opponent FG% from both 2-point and 3-point range.
- Size and experience. UConn ranks 21st in D-I experience per player and 26th in average height. The team also has the 10th-highest minutes continuity from last year’s squad (54.7%).
- Grade-A resume wins. It’s a down year for the Big East, but UConn has already corralled some stellar wins in road/neutral environments against three teams in KenPom’s top-20 rankings: Illinois, Florida and BYU.
-> Bet on tonight’s Jayhawks vs. Red Raiders game!
The Huskies enter tonight’s showdown on an 18-game winning streak, and they have two wins over a Providence squad that beat St. John’s last month (in a home game for the Johnnies).
UConn vs. St. John’s picks made at 2:45 p.m. on Feb. 6, 2026.
