Georgetown @ St. John's preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 8, 2020 ) St. John's 66, Georgetown 87

Georgetown and St. John's, two former giants of the Big East, will meet for the 115th time Sunday at Madison Square Garden, only this time it will be to stay out of the conference basement. Promising non-conference results for the Hoyas and the Red Storm have given way to struggles in the Big East, which has become the new normal for the once proud programs.

The Hoyas got the best of the Red Storm in their first meeting this season in Washington, D.C., racing out to a 27-point halftime advantage and coasting home to an 87-66 victory, but they have won once in five games since and have lost three straight games. Mac McClung, a sophomore guard who had 24 points in the first game against St. John's, has overtaken senior center Omer Yurtseven for the team lead in scoring, and could be primed for another big game for the Hoyas, who have averaged 88 points in the last five meetings with the Red Storm, three of them victories. St. John's and leading scorer LJ Figueroa have taken advantage of cellar dweller DePaul for a pair of wins, but struggled against the rest of the Big East, averaging 65 points in seven losses. "This team here doesn't have a whole lot of margin for error," first-year coach Mike Anderson told the media. "I've said that since Day 1. A lot of things have to go right. Our big two (Figueroa, Mustapha Heron), when they play well, we play well."

TIME: 1 p.m. ET. TV: CBS

ABOUT GEORGETOWN (12-9, 2-6 Big East): Qudus Wahab continues to try to make the most of the limited minutes he gets as the backup to Yurtseven. The freshman center is logging 11.5 minutes per game, but his 40-minute usage average over the last five games is 27.6 points thanks to two games in double figures and another with a near double-double. "Omer is our best player. Qudus is our future," coach and former center Patrick Ewing told the media. "Some nights I want to play him more minutes but sometimes he makes a good play on one end, but I don't see it on the other end. I am going to play it the way I see it."

ABOUT ST. JOHN'S (13-9, 2-7): Rasheem Dunn will look to add to his string of impressive performances for the Red Storm at Madison Square Garden, where he has led the team in scoring and assists in four games there this season. The junior, who won a state championship in high school at the Garden alongside former St. John's star Shamorie Ponds, had 24 points and four assists against Villanova to bring his averages to 16 points and 4.3 assists. The Brooklyn native, who has also averaged 5.5 rebounds in Garden games, put up 18 points, nine boards, four assists and four steals in the game at Georgetown.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Led by Terrell Allen (4.0) and Jagan Mosely (3.4), the Hoyas are tops in the Big East in assists per game (15.6).

2. Yurtseven is in the top six in the Big East in points, rebounds, offensive rebounds, field goal percentage and blocks per game.

3. St. John's ranked fourth nationally entering Saturday with 10.5 steals per game and that number jumps to 11.3 in Big East play, nearly four more than second-place Providence and DePaul.

PREDICTION: Georgetown 85, St. John's 80