Rutgers and Indiana Open New Eras as Day Three Brings a Quieter Slate

Day 2 of the college basketball season is in the books, and after Day 1 saw a lot of chaos. Day 2 leveled off a bit, and the teams we expected to win, as well as the teams we thought might be good, showed that tonight. The top-ranked team, Purdue, rolled at Evansville behind Foster Loyer's 30-point game.

Kentucky and Duke also rolled to victories, though it took them a little longer to get the separation they needed; nonetheless, both teams cruised to victories. The Blue Devils beat the Texas Longhorns in the Dick Vitale Invitational in Charlotte, NC.  

There was only one surprising result on Day 2, and that was NJIT beating Fordham in Rose Hill. The Rams are not expected to be very good, but the Highlanders are one of the worst teams in the country, at least it seemed that way at the start of the season.  Finally, Oregon struggled to beat Hawaii without Jackson Shelstad.

The Wednesday slate isn't incredible. There are not many games that move the needle, but two intriguing ones are highlighted below. As always, I have selected the clear winners for the remaining games as well.

Rider Broncs at Rutgers Scarlet Knights- Who replaces the lottery picks?

Rutgers isn't supposed to be very good this year. The Scarlet Knights lost a significant amount of talent last year, mainly with the departures of Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, both of whom are headed to the NBA. That left Rutgers having to rebuild the roster, and head coach Steve Pikiell has a ton of freshmen who don't project out to be very good. It will be interesting to see how the Scarlet Knights look in their first action. Rider comes out of the MAAC and should be a middle-of-the-pack MAAC team that may pose a challenge to the Scarlet Knights.

Alabama A&M Bulldogs at Indiana Hoosiers- Two coaches make their team debuts

Will this game be great? Probably not, but it is the first time that the Assembly Hall faithful will get to see new head coach Darien DeVries and his team in action. DeVries is a great coach and will get the Hoosiers moving in the right direction. This game also features a new coach for Alabama A&M. Dont'e Jackson, who turned around the Grambling program, is tasked with doing the same thing with the Bulldogs. He will have his work cut out for him against Indiana, but both teams should be much improved.

The rest of the picks are below: