Game Thread: St. John's vs. Butler

St. John's vs. Butler

When: Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 4:30 p.m.

Where: Carnesecca Arena, Jamaica, NY

How to Watch: FOX Sports Network

How to Listen: 570 WMCA

The Johnnies were dominated by 20 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in mid-January, but the team will return home after their impressive performance at Xavier on Wednesday. Butler cannot afford a "bad loss" as they remain on the NCAA Tournament bubble due to a 4-6 conference record with wins over just DePaul (twice), St. John's and Georgetown.

The Red Storm will look to play spoiler by containing sharp shooter Kellen Dunham and do-it-all senior Roosevelt Jones. They will also have to try to limit the Bulldogs on the glass as the road team is fourth in the Big East in offensive rebounding and 3rd in defensive rebounding. But the Bulldogs are undersized, so Christian Jones and Kassoum Yakwe could have a chance to keep things close in the paint. The Johnnies also have Yankuba Sima (who missed seven games with a broken hand) back today and while he will likely be limited, he was one of the team's better players through the first two Big East games.

It will be interesting to see if the offensive production (the great spacing, good ball movement and transition attack) will carry over to today's match-up. Butler is not a great defensive team (6th in the Big East), which could make this game a shootout.

Will Mussini be back in the starting lineup after coming off the bench against Xavier?

Will the Johnnies press Tyler Lewis and Butler to get the crowd involved early?

What type of impact with Yankuba Sima make today?

Pre-game reading:

Preview: Butler vs. St. John's

Where does everyone stand on the Johnnies roster?