Nebraska vs Minnesota Prediction 3/1/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers meet Saturday in college basketball action from Pinnacle Bank Arena. Here’s a Nebraska vs Minnesota prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Nebraska vs Minnesota pick.

Minnesota Golden Gophers Betting Preview

It’s been a pretty eventful year for the Gophers so far with lots of mixed results amid a pretty tough schedule. Minnesota has been able to maintain a .500 clip through it all, though. In their first 13 outings the Golden Gophers went 8-5 with losses to North Texas, Wichita State, Wake Forest, Michigan State and Indiana during that time. Minnesota would lose the next four versus Purdue, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Maryland before wins versus Michigan, Iowa and Oregon in the next three. The Gophers have since gone 3-5 over the last eight outings, with wins over Penn State, USC and UCLA. The losses otherwise during that stretch came versus Michigan State, Washington, Illinois, Penn State and Northwestern. In total over 28 games so far that gives the Golden Gophers a 14-14 overall record.

In the Tuesday matchup versus Northwestern, the Gophers came out of halftime with a 36-31 deficit. Minnesota didn’t get any closer on a 39-32 run in the second half, eventually taking the loss 75-63. Leading the team in scoring was Dawson Garcia with 26 points and nine rebounds with one assist and one block in 40 minutes of play. The only other player on the team to reach double-figures was Frank Mitchell with 10 points, four rebounds and two blocks in 15 minutes of work off the bench. Both Lu’Cye Patterson (two steals) and Femi Odukale (seven rebounds; five assists) chipped in with seven points apiece as well.

Nebraska Cornhuskers Betting Preview

Over on the Cornhuskers’ side, they’ve got a couple of spotty runs in the record column so far this year but otherwise they’re doing quite well gathering up wins. Nebraska kicked things off with a 12-2 run that included victories over UTRGV, Bethune-Cookman, Fairleigh Dickinson, Creighton, South Dakota, North Florida, Indiana, Murray State, Hawaii, Oregon State, Southern and UCLA. Losses to Iowa, Purdue, Rutgers, Maryland, USC and Wisconsin came next, and since then it’s been a 5-3 run. Those losses were versus Maryland, Penn State and Michigan. Otherwise the wins came versus Illinois, Oregon, Washington, Ohio State and Northwestern, giving the Cornhuskers a 17-11 overall record through the first 28 games of the year.

In the Michigan matchup, Nebraska was down 25-21 going into the second half. Following another low-scoring run 25-24 the Cornhuskers ended up with a loss 49-46. The team’s only double-digit scorer was Brice Williams with 26 points, four rebounds and two steals. Sam Hoiberg chipped in six points and four boards off the bench, while Juwan Gary had five points and six rebounds in 29 minutes of work on the floor during the defeat.

Why the Nebraska Cornhuskers will win

• Nebraska has won each of its last 10 day games at Pinnacle Bank Arena against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• Minnesota has lost each of its last four games when playing with a rest disadvantage against Nebraska.
• Minnesota has lost the first half in each of its last eight games against the Big Ten Conference.

Why the Minnesota Golden Gophers will win

• The road team has won each of Minnesota’s last seven games.
• Nebraska has lost three of its last four games.
• Nebraska has lost the first half in each of its last six games against the Big Ten Conference.

Nebraska vs Minnesota Prediction

I’ll stick with Nebraska. The Cornhuskers are coming off a rather weird loss to Michigan. Both teams shot horrendously (under 30 percent) and Nebraska got out-rebounded 50-43. The 11 turnovers didn’t help matters, and the Cornhuskers came up with just five assists. That makes three losses in the last four games for Nebraska, but prior to their latest loss they’d hit 68 or more points in seven straight outings.

As for Minnesota, they shot a tepid 42.1 percent from the field with 13 turnovers for 12 Northwestern points in their latest loss. The Gophers did pretty well on the boards otherwise though (36) and had 15 team assists along the way. Still, that’s now consecutive losses with a combined 123 points scored in that pair. Minnesota has in fact been below 70 points in four straight games now, so if Nebraska can get the scoring going I don’t think the Gophers will keep the pace.