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The Rider Broncs take on the Marist Red Foxes. Check out our college basketball odds series for our Rider Marist prediction and pick. Find out how to watch Rider Marist.
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference has a tightly-bunched race. Siena leads the conference by half a game over Iona and one game over Quinnipiac and Rider. The Broncs go to the Marist campus in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., with the specific objective of moving into second place in the MAAC. Knowing that either Siena or Iona — one of the top two teams in the conference — will lose means that Rider is guaranteed to gain ground on one of them if it wins on Marist's home floor. This race figures to be a mad scramble to the finish line. Nothing is to be taken for granted in the MAAC, a conference where the order of finish in the regular season standings often has no bearing on what happens at the conference tournament in early March.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Rider-Marist College Basketball odds.
College Basketball Odds: Rider-Marist Odds
Rider Broncs: -2.5 (-114)
Marist Red Foxes: +2.5 (-106)
Over: 129.5 (-108)
Under: 129.5 (-112)
How To Watch Rider vs. Marist
TV: ESPN3
Stream: ESPN3, ESPN+
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET, 4:00 p.m. PT
*Watch Rider-Marist LIVE with fuboTV (Click for free trial)*
Why Rider Could Cover the Spread
The Marist Red Foxes are really struggling right now. They just lost to Saint Peter's and Mount Saint Mary's, two of the three worst teams in the conference as measured by the conference standings. The Saint Peter's loss was at home. Marist scored fewer than 58 points in each game. The Red Foxes just don't have the offensive firepower or the rhythm needed to win this game.
Rider has won three games in a row to move up in the conference standings. The Broncs won on the road at Iona, 70-67, on January 15. It might be the single most impressive road win in the MAAC this season. It certainly shows what this Rider team is capable of. Rider is the in-form team heading into this game. It has more confidence and rhythm. This doesn't seem like an overly complicated decision to make.
Why Marist Could Cover the Spread
This game might seem like Rider's to lose, but let's keep in mind that while Rider has won three games in a row, the Broncs were 6-9 through their first 15 games of the season before this recent three-game winning streak. Rider's overall record is 9-9. That tells you that if Rider has a good patch in its season, it doesn't last very long. Sustaining consistency is something the Broncs have not been able to do. There is bound to be a course correction — or several — over the course of the season, and in a MAAC landscape where no individual team has taken complete control of the conference, it is wise to expect this conference to cannibalize itself. If one team is getting hot and has a chance to rise to the top of the standings, that team will get eaten up, maintaining a situation defined by parity and balance. Within that context, it makes complete sense for Marist, playing at home, to stymie Rider and make sure the MAAC remains tightly bunched.
Final Rider-Marist Prediction & Pick
You should stay away from this game. The MAAC is a volatile conference where plot twists and surprises are always popping up. If you absolutely insist on a pick, lean to Rider, but betting on MAAC basketball is often far too stressful. You have been warned.
Final Rider-Marist Prediction & Pick: Rider -2.5
