The Rider Broncs and the Nebraska Cornhuskers meet Monday in college basketball action from Pinnacle Bank Arena. Rider is sitting at 1-1 so far after a blowout loss to Marquette on Friday. As for Nebraska, they’re 2-0 and coming off a blowout win over Florida A&M. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Rider Broncs 

The Broncs kicked off their 2023-24 season with a pretty routine matchup versus Immaculata. After jumping out to a 61-38 lead at the break, Rider scored another 52 points in an eventual blowout win 113-67. Mervin James led the team on his 18 points and four rebounds, while TJ Weeks added 13 points with seven rebounds. 

Game two versus Marquette didn’t go quite as well for the Broncs, needless to say. Rider trailed 49-32 going into the second half, then allowed another 46 points from there in a 95-65 blowout loss. James led the way again with 15 points and eight boards, while Weeks doubled up on 14 points and 12 boards. 

Nebraska Cornhuskers 

Over on the Nebraska side, they’ve had a couple of relatively easy matchups so far. The Cornhuskers took on Lindenwood in their opener, bagging 51 first-half points on the way to a win 84-52. Sam Hoiberg led the team on 15 points and five boards, while three other players turned in 13 points each. 

Back on Thursday against Florida A&M, the Cornhuskers posted 41 points in the first half and 40 more from there on the way to another big win 81-54. Rienk Mast had a great outing in that one, doubling up on 20 points and 16 rebounds. Eli Rice added 16 points, and Brice Williams had 15 points with six rebounds. 

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’ll probably just stay with Nebraska. The Cornhuskers have looked pretty good through two (admittedly easy) games so far, and shouldn’t have a ton of trouble with this one either. Nebraska got their latest win over Florida A&M by dominating the boards 55-35 and holding the Rattlers to just 30.3 percent shooting from the floor. There are a few gripes however, including the 18 turnovers and the sketchy foul shooting (69.4 percent). 

As for Rider, they didn’t perform horribly against a great Marquette team in their last outing. The Broncs managed to win the rebounding battle 39-37, but also shot just 39.4 percent from the field and had 16 turnovers. This should be a slightly more manageable matchup for Rider, but I still don’t think they’ll get very close.