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Nebraska vs Rutgers Prediction 1/16/25 College Basketball Picks Today

Rutgers (9-8) vs. Nebraska (12-4)
January 16, 2025 9:00 pm EDT
The Line: Nebraska -7.5; Over/Under: 146.5
(Get latest betting odds)

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the Nebraska Cornhuskers meet Thursday in college basketball action from Pinnacle Bank Arena. Here’s a Nebraska vs Rutgers prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Nebraska vs Rutgers pick.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights Betting Preview

Rutgers kicked off the 2024-25 season on a pretty solid run, but they’ve struggled since late November with only one instance of consecutive wins during that time. The Scarlet Knights opened on a 5-1 stretch with wins over Wagner, Saint Peter’s, Monmouth, Merrimack, and Notre Dame alongside a lone loss to Kennesaw State. A 3-4 stretch came after that, with wins over Penn State, Seton Hall, and Columbia mixed with losses to Alabama, Texas A&M, Ohio State, and Princeton. Since then it’s been a 1-4 stretch. The Scarlet Knights fell to Indiana, Wisconsin, and Purdue in succession before a win over UCLA, giving Rutgers a 9-8 overall record through the first 17 games of the season.



In the UCLA game on Monday, the Scarlet Knights came out of halftime sporting a 33-30 deficit. Rutgers did get better from there on a 45-35 second-half run, eventually taking the victory in comeback fashion 75-68. Leading the team in scoring was Ace Bailey, who doubled up on 20 points with 10 boards and three blocks with a pair of assists. Dylan Harper added 18 points with four rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes, while Jeremiah Williams led the bench players on his 11 points, one rebound, one steal, and one assist in 26 minutes of work.

Nebraska Cornhuskers Betting Preview

Over on the Nebraska side, they came out of the gate this year with a flourish, and they’ve only recently suffered their first instance of consecutive losses. The Cornhuskers won six of their first seven games, losing to only Saint Mary’s with wins otherwise versus UTRGV, Bethune-Cookman, Fairleigh Dickinson, Creighton, South Dakota, and North Florida. Following another loss to Michigan State, the Cornhuskers beat Indiana, Murray State, Hawaii, Oregon State, Southern, and UCLA in the next six. In their last two games, however, the Cornhuskers have lost to Iowa and Purdue, giving the team a 12-4 record so far across 16 games.

Matched up against Purdue back on Sunday, Nebraska looked pretty rough. The Cornhuskers limped into the locker room with a 45-28 deficit, then didn’t get any closer in the second with a 59-40 run for a 104-68 defeat. Leading team scorer Connor Essegian came off the bench to post 17 points with five rebounds and three assists. The only other player on the team to notch a double-figure points total was Juwan Gary with 10 alongside one rebound and two turnovers in 29 minutes of work on the floor during the defeat.

Why the Nebraska Cornhuskers will win

  • Nebraska has won each of its last 23 games at Pinnacle Bank Arena against non-AP-ranked opponents.
  • Rutgers has lost each of its last eight Thursday night road games against the Big Ten Conference.
  • Nebraska has won the first half in each of its last 15 games at Pinnacle Bank Arena against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Why the Rutgers Scarlet Knights will win

  • Rutgers has won seven of its last nine night games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
  • The road team has won the first half in each of Rutgers’ last three games.

Nebraska vs Rutgers Prediction

I’m going to stay with Nebraska. The Cornhuskers do need quite the bounce-back effort after a pair of losses, though. In the Purdue game Nebraska shot well (48.1 percent) from the field but also gave up 63.1 percent on the other side. The Cornhuskers also got out-rebounded 33-20 and coughed up 17 turnovers for 22 Purdue points in the blowout defeat. The 68-point total was fairly low for Nebraska, but not exactly uncharacteristic. The troubling stat is the whopping 201 combined points surrendered over the last two games.

As for Rutgers, they started pretty slowly against a solid UCLA team in their latest game, but to their credit the Knights came through in the end. Rutgers ended up shooting 46.2 percent in that one along with 37 rebounds for a much-needed victory. The Scarlet Knights had posted just 113 combined points over their previous pair, and they’ve given up 68 or more points in four straight. Nebraska should have plenty of room to score Thursday, and playing at home will certainly help. I like the Cornhuskers to notch a nice recovery effort here.

Andrew's Free Pick: Nebraska Cornhuskers -7.5

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Andrew

Andrew has been writing about college, professional and fantasy sports betting since 2013. Andrew's goal is to break down the complicated numbers and trends into a language that's easily accessible to novice sports bettors and seasoned professionals alike.

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