St. John's Red Storm vs Kentucky Wildcats Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 12/20/25

The St. John’s Red Storm and the Kentucky Wildcats will face off in Atlanta on Saturday as part of the CBS Sports Classic. There are lots of storylines to unpack here. There is the coaching matchup—Rick Pitino coached Mark Pope at Kentucky in the 90s, and they won a national title together. Then there is the Atlanta angle—mark that down as a Kentucky home game, and they even like to call it “Catlanta”. Listen, I have been to Atlanta when Kentucky played an NCAA regional there, and the Wildcat fans took over downtown, and were even crushing beers while tailgating in my hotel lobby (but that is a story for another day). And then, of course, there is the fact that both teams have struggled painfully against good opponents this year, and both really do need a quality win. In this spot, I am taking the points with the Wildcats at +3.

Kentucky’s struggles early in the season largely had to do with injuries. This team has a lot of talent and a lot of depth, but they haven’t been healthy in several weeks. They are starting to get there, and you could see the difference in the Indiana game most recently. They will shoot better as they go, but in this matchup, it will be the defense and rebounding that need to make the difference. St. John’s has been playing fast, but the Wildcats are happy to do that too. St. John’s is attacking the rim, but Kentucky defends well in the paint. There seem to be several factors that favor Kentucky in this game, so I am taking the points with the Cats in the Big A as Kentucky starts to work bac to health.

St. John’s vs Kentucky Prediction: Kentucky +3 (-110) available at the time of publishing; Playable to the Money Line.