No. 4 Kansas vs. No. 5 St. John’s NCAA Tournament predictions: Odds, recent stats, trends, and best bets

The Sweet 16 features a handful of marquee matchups and the most intriguing of those may well be Kansas taking on St. John’s. Bill Self vs. Rick Pitino. Former Jayhawk Zuby Ejiofor vs. Flory Bidunga. And of course, Darryn Peterson and all that comes with the mystery that is the spectacular freshman.

This is surprisingly only the second career meeting between Self and Pitino. The Red Storm advanced to Sunday following a dominant 79-53 first-round victory over Northern Iowa, led by the former Jayhawk and Big East Player of the Year Ejiofor. Kansas survived a late comeback bid by Cal Baptist in a 68-60 win. The enigmatic Peterson was special scoring 28 points in the victory.

St. John’s has won 20 of their last 21 games. At the foundation of their success is strong interior play and aggressive defense. Kansas has gone just 5-5 in their last 10. Is that all because of the somewhat random availability of Peterson? Perhaps. The Jayhawks are also strong on the boards. They are not as aggressive defensively as St. John’s, but what they are lacking on the defensive end in comparison to the Johnnies, they make up for in sheer talent and athleticism primarily because of Peterson. He is that good.

Kansas is looking to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since their 2022 championship run. The Johnnies are looking to reach the second weekend since 1999 and the days of Ron Artest.

Lets take a closer look at this Round 2 matchup and take into consideration lineups, injuries, and other factors affecting the line and total.

We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on how to catch tipoff, odds courtesy of DraftKings recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.

Game Details and How to Watch Live: Kansas vs. St. John’s

Date: Sunday, March 22, 2026

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Game Odds: Kansas vs. St. John’s

The latest odds as of Saturday courtesy of DraftKings:

Moneyline: Kansas Jayhawks (+140), St. John’s Red Storm (-166)
Spread: St. John’s -3.5

This game opened St. John’s -2.5 with the Total set at 143.5.

Be sure to check out DraftKings for all the latest game odds & player props for every matchup this week on the NCAA Basketball schedule!

Expected Starting Lineups: Kansas vs. St. John’s

Kansas Jayhawks

St. John’s Red Storm

Important stats, trends and insights: Kansas vs. St. John’s

Kansas is 20-14 ATS overall this season
St. John’s is 20-15 ATS overall this season
The OVER has cashed in only 13 of St. John’s 35 games this season (13-22)
The OVER has cashed in only 11 of Kansas’ 34 games this season (11-23)
Dylan Darling was 0-6 from 3-point range in Round 1
Joson Sanon scored 18 points off the bench in Round 1 for the Johnnies
Kansas went just 4-19 from beyond the arc in Round 1
Darryn Peterson made each of those three pointers for the Jayhawks going 4-11 from deep

Rotoworld Best Bet

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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the NCAA calendar based on data points like recent performance, head-to-head player matchups, trends information and projected game totals.

Once the model is finished running, we put its projections next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.

Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Saturday’s game between Kansas and St. John’s:

Moneyline: Rotoworld Bet is leaning towards a play on St. John’s on the Moneyline
Spread: Rotoworld Bet is leaning towards a play on St. John’s -3.5
Total: Rotoworld Bet is leaning towards a play on the Game Total UNDER 144.5