Rutgers vs UMass Odds and Picks (Nov. 27)

• UMass (4-3) hosts Rutgers (3-2) in an A-10-Big Ten matchup Saturday, November 26th, at 2:00 pm ET in Amherst
• The Minutemen are coming off a 92-81 home win against UMass-Lowell Wednesday, while the Scarlet Knights dropped their second close game in a row to Lafayette 53-51 Monday
• See the current moneyline, point spread, and game total, plus predictions

The UMass Minutemen (4-3) — who already own one victory against a Big Ten program this season after dominating Penn State 81-56 on Nov. 15 — aim for a 4-0 start at home against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (3-2) Saturday in Amherst. Tip off is at 2:00 pm ET from the Mullins Center.

UMass enters the contest as underdogs according to oddsmakers but KenPom predicts the Minutemen will win 69-68.

Rutgers vs UMass Odds

Odds as of November 26th, 2021 at BetMGM

Head coach Matt McCall saw six of his players score in double-digits in the Minutemen’s 11-point win over the in-state rival River Hawks. Reserve point guard Javohn Garcia registered a season-high 18 points off the bench to lead UMass in place of the team’s leading scorer Noah Fernandes.

Meantime, Cliff Omoruyi had 14 points and nine rebounds against the Jaguars. But head coach Steve Pikiell’s club managed to shoot just 29% (16-of-56) from the field and was an abysmal 4-of-26 from 3-point range in Rutgers’ second-straight close loss.

Prior to the Lafayette defeat, the Big Ten squad lost 73-70 to DePaul.

Umass Has Strength in Numbers

The Minutemen have a balanced roster featuring five players averaging in double-figures so far — and that does not include Garcia. McCall expects his starting point guard Fernandes to be available Saturday.  The junior guard is putting up 15.2 points per game in the early stages of the 2021-22 campaign. Trent Buttrick is right behind him with 15.1 points per contest.

UMass converted 25 of their 33 free throw attempts against the River Hawks, including Garcia going 9-for-11 from the charity stripe.

3-0 in the @MullinsCenter 👀

🎥 presented by @IsenbergUMass#Flagship 🚩 pic.twitter.com/5Vis4XPH9d

— UMass Men's Basketball (@UMassMBB) November 25, 2021

UMass is one of the elite teams in Division I in offensive block percentage (9th) and steal percentage (13th). In addition to the victory over UMass-Lowell, the Minutemen have also knocked off UMBC, the aforementioned NIttany Lions and UNC Greensboro, while losing to Yale, Weber State and Ball State. They’re rated 120th overall by KenPom — and thanks to that perimeter-based scoring — have a chance to make some noise in the A-10 this season.

Saturday’s tilt will end a compact stretch that has seen UMass play eight games in 18 days. Following the Rutgers outing, McCall’s guys won’t play again until a home date against Harvard next Saturday. The head coach gave his players 24 hours off following an early practice Thanksgiving Day — so look for the Minutemen to be recharged and go full bore against the Scarlet Knights.

Early Desperation From Rutgers

Rutgers played in the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time since 1991 (and won a Big Dance contest for the first time since 1983). The Scarlet Knights entered the season hoping to build on that March Madness momentum. But after three straight season-opening wins, Pikiell’s club has stumbled a bit — with that home defeat to a middle-of-the-road Patriot League squad being the latest.

Six days ago, Lafayette lost by 28 at Penn.

Tonight, it beat Rutgers at the RAC to earn its first win of the season.

Anarchy?

Nope. Just College Basketball. https://t.co/pQzySOvWmJ

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) November 23, 2021

To make matters worse, the Scarlet Knights have also dropped their last five regular season non-conference games outside of Piscataway — a majority of which they were favored to win. The program’s last-such victory came against Miami (FL) in November 2018.

It’s fair to say the Knights are in desperation mode Saturday. Plus, when you look at what’s ahead of Rutgers (four straight games against top-45 rated programs by KenPom), Saturday’s tilt against UMass takes on even more of a “must-win” feel.

Ron Harper leads the Knights once again with 15.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game early on. He’s joined by Omoruyi and Geo Baker in the double-figure scoring department. Baker is a legit distributor, leading the team with 4.0 assists per game and was a 2020 Honorable Mention All-Big Ten selection. The trio will need to lead the way Saturday as this would-be sleeper Big Ten team needs a win.

Rutgers vs UMass Prediction

KenPom projects the Minutemen to win by one point. And while I love the “rested-and-ready-to-rumble” set-up for the home team, the Scarlet Knights need this one in the worst possible way.

UMass has a deep roster, but the team has been inconsistent this season. McCall’s team has yet to win consecutive games, bouncing between winning and losing in vastly different ways. The victory over Penn State came the same week the Minutemen lost to Ball State — ranked 271st on KenPom at the time of the contest — in overtime on a neutral court.

Taking everything into account, I’ll roll with Rutgers to pick up a hard-fought — and long sought-after — non-conference road win.

Pick: Rutgers -125