Nebraska Men’s Basketball: Rider Broncs Preview

Game number two is tonight against the Rider Broncs. No, not the Broncos, they are the Broncs.

Here are a few nuggets of information that will serve as the TB;DR (Too Busy, Didn’t Research) Team Preview along with some essential information below.

1. This is Game One of the Cornhusker Classic. The Cornhusker Classic is a four-team event with Nebraska, Rider, Stony Brook and Duquesne that takes place between Nov. 13-22. All four teams will play each other during that time frame.
2. Rienk Mast is currently leading the Huskers in scoring (16.5 points per game) and rebounding (11.0 rebounds per game).
3. Rider’s last game was against 5th ranked Marquette in which they lost by 30.
4. Rider is the pre-season favorite to win their conference and they have the preseason conference player of the year in Mervin James, so keep an eye on him.

Date: Monday, November 13th, 2023

Time: 7:05pm CST

Location: Pinnacle Bank Arena Lincoln, NE

T.V. Broadcast? Big Ten Network with Kevin Kugler and Nick Bahe.

2022-2023 Record: Overall 16-14 and 13-7 in the MAAC Conference

Head Coach: Kevin Baggett (12th Season)

Mascot: Broncs

What About Rider? Preview from the Athletic Department:

Rider comes to town with a 1-1 record following Friday’s loss at fifth-ranked Marquette. In that game, Marquette shot 55 percent and converted 16 Rider turnovers into 24 points. T.J. Weeks Jr. had 14 points and 12 rebounds while Mervin James had 15 points and eight rebounds in a losing effort.

Rider was the preseason pick by the conference coaches to win the league, garnering eight of the 11 first-place votes. The Broncs finished second in the MAAC last season with a 13-7 record, highlighted by a win at Iona. Rider features a veteran lineup with all five starters in at least their fourth year of college, including a trio of fifth-year performers.

Senior forward Mervin James was selected as the MAAC Preseason Player of the Year after averaging 12.9 ppg and 6.8 rpg last season. He comes into Monday’s game with nearly 1400 career points and 700 career rebounds. James was joined on the preseason all-conference team by Allen Powell. Another fifth-year senior, Powell averaged 10.4 points, 2.1 assists and nearly a steal per game. The group also features T.J. Weeks Jr., who was a two-year starter at UMass and is a career 36 percent 3-point shooter, and Tariq Ingraham, a 6-foot-9 forward who began his college career at Wake Forest. Last year, he averaged 6.4 ppg on 59 percent shooting.

Kevin Baggett is in his 12th season at the school and is a two-time MAAC Coach of the Year. He was an assistant coach at Rider from 2006-12 and was promoted to head coach in 2012. A former player at St. Joseph’s in the late 1980s, he has been coaching in the college ranks since 1995.

Monday’s meeting is the first in the series, as NU is 6-1 all-time against teams from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. It is NU’s first meeting against a MAAC opponent since a win over Marist in the 2017 Advocare Invitational in Orlando.