Rhode Island vs Boston University College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 11/9/2021

The Boston Terriers and the Rhode Island Rams meet in college basketball action from the Thomas F. Ryan Center on Tuesday night.

The Boston Terriers will look to bounce back from a disappointing 2020-21 campaign in which the Terriers were expected to challenge Colgate for the conference title. The Terriers instead went 7-11, including 6-10 in conference play, earning the 7-seed in the conference tournament, ousting Lehigh before a quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Colgate. The Terriers get all five starters back, including leading scorer Javante McCoy, who logged 16.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG & 2.2 APG last season. Walter Whyte is also back after recording 13.5 PPG and 6.7 RPG, as is Sukhmail Mathon, who had 11.2 PPG and 8.2 RPG as part of an all-conference defensive team season in 2020-21. Jonas Harper and Ethan Brittain-Watts round out the group returning, while Nevin Zink is the lone transfer in from USC Upstate after recording 9.1 PPG and 5.6 RPG for the Spartans last year. The talent is there for Boston to contend this year, so now it’s just put up or shut up if you’re the Terriers.

The Rhode Island Rams will look to build off of a 10-15 mark in 2020-21, including 7-10 in conference play, earning the #10 seed in the A-10 tournament but their stay was short as they were bounced in the second round by Dayton. The Rams don’t have the services of Fatts Russell this season after transferring out of the program, but the Rams weren’t that bad in his absence last season and the Rams do have some great pieces coming back and coming in. Jeremy Sheppard had 11.3 PPG and 2.8 APG last season while Makhel Mitchell had 9.6 PPG and 5.6 RPG and Antwan Walker chipped in 9.1 PPG and 6.5 RPG last season. Makhi Mitchell is also back and Ishmael El-Amin transfers in from Ball State after leading the Cardinals with 16.2 PPG, 3 RPG and 2.9 APG last season. The A-10 is a lot more competitive than it used to be, so a push to the top for Rhode Island appears to be a challenge this coming season.

Rhode Island is the more name-recognizable team, but realistically, I need to see how their lineup meshes before really instilling any faith in them. Boston brings back their entire starting five and you have to think that the Terriers will be out to make some noise early after a disappointing year last year. I think Boston comes out firing and at the very least, puts a scare into Rhode Island. Give me the points.