Creighton vs St. Thomas (MN) 11/7/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The St. Thomas Tommies and the Creighton Blue Jays meet in college basketball action from the Chi Sports Center Omaha on Monday night.

The St. Thomas Tommies will try to take another step forward in 2022-23, finishing their debut D-I season after a 10-20 record with a 4-14 mark in Summit League conference play, but because of their transfer from D-III they weren’t eligible for the Summit League tournament. The Tommies will need to figure out how to replace Anders Nelson (14.6 PPG, 3.4 RPG) as he’s no longer with the Tommies, but St. Thomas does bring back a pair of double-digit scorers from last year’s team in Riley Miller (15.4 PPG) and Parker Bjorklund (12.7 PPG, 6.3 RPG) as part of a Thommies group that shot almost half of their attempts from 3-point range last season.

The Creighton Bluejays will try to build on a decent 2021-22 season, finishing the year at 23-12 overall including a 12-7 mark in Big East conference play. The Bluejays earned the 4-seed, taking out Marquette and top-seeded Providence before falling to Villanova in the conference championship game. Creighton got an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, taking down San Diego State in OT before losing to eventual champion Kansas in the second round. The Bluejays do have to replace a pair of double-digit scorers from last year in Ryan Hawkins (13.8 PPG, 7.8 RPG) and Alex O’Connell (11.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG), but do bring back Ryan Nembhard (11.3 PPG, 4.4 APG), Ryan Kalkbrenner (13.1 PPG, 7.7 RPG) and Arthur Kaluma (10.4 PPG, 5.4 RPG) for another go around. The Bluejays also got one of the prizes in the transfer portal, bringing in former South Dakota State Jackrabbit Baylor Scheierman, who had 16.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG and 4.5 APG for South Dakota State last year.

St. Thomas is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 road games and 3-12 ATS in their last 15 games overall while the under is 5-2 in their last 7 road games. Creighton is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 home games while the over is 13-6 in their last 19 Monday games.

I get the case to be made either way here, but I’m looking at the over. I was thinking Creighton, but the volume which St. Thomas shoots the 3 and can hit it with consistency leaves yourself open for a backdoor cover, especially in garbage time. I think it’s safer to take the over as Creighton’s going to get their points here and the addition of Scheierman’s only going to help. I think this game finished closer to the high-150s or low-160s. Give me the over.