Nebraska vs Western Illinois College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 11/9/2021

The Western Illinois Leathernecks and the Nebraska Cornhuskers meet in college basketball action from Pinnacle Bank Arena on Tuesday night.

The Western Illinois Leathernecks will try to bounce back from a 7-15 season including a 5-9 mark in Summit conference play to finish with the #7 seed. The Leathernecks had a brief stay in the Summit conference tournament, falling to South Dakota in the quarterfinals. The Leathernecks bring back two double-digit scorers in Will Carlus and Tarnell Pearson with Carlus logging 14.7 PPG and 5.1 RPG while Pearson has 10.4 PPG and 6.9 RPG. Trenton Massner had 13.1 PPG and 4.7 RPG, transferring from Northwestern State while Quinlan Bennett had 9.6 PPG and 4.3 RPG for Lamar. Colton Sandage also returns for the Leathernecks after logging 9.5 PPG last season. The Leathernecks are a trendy dark horse in the Summit after rattling off five straight wins to close the regular season, but only time will tell if that comes to fruition.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers will be looking for a major bounce back after finishing 7-20 in 2020-21, including a 3-15 mark in Big Ten conference play to finish dead last. As the 14^th seed in the Big Ten tournament, the Huskers were swiftly eliminated by Penn State, ending their season. The Huskers have to rebuild a fair bit after losing a good chunk of last year’s roster, but the Cornhuskers do bring back Trey McGowens who had 10.7 PPG and 3.9 RPG while Kobe Webster had 8.1 PPG last season. Lat Mayen and Derrick Walker had 8.6 PPG and 4.5 RPG and 5.9 PPG and 4.8 RPG respectively last season. The big pull for Fred Hoiberg to Lincoln was Alonzo Verge transferring in from Arizona State after putting up 14 PPG, 3.9 RPG and 3.8 APG last season. There’s legitimate talent within Nebraska’s lineup, but will those pieces fit together once the season starts? It’ll be interesting to see.

Western Illinois is 7-2 ATS in their last 9 games overall and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games as an underdog while the over is 8-2 in their last 10 road games. Nebraska is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 home games and 6-14 ATS in their last 20 games as a home favorite while the over is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall.

I was giving a serious look to Western Illinois and the points as there’s a lot of talent there and some solid pieces, but there may need to be a period to mesh as a team. Nebraska wasn’t good at all last season, but maybe this will be a game that Nebraska can use to clear their minds from last year, put it in the rear view, and build some confidence. With that said, this is still a lot to give up with Nebraska, so I’ll side with the under as I think this game is just one big feeling out process from start to finish.