Kevin Baggett will lead Rider into non-league match-ups against Purdue and Villanova.

To get through the non-conference portion of the schedule, Rider will have to be road warriors.

The team released its non-league slate Tuesday with six of the nine contests away from Alumni Gymnasium.

The schedule is highlighted by trips to the Big Ten’s Purdue and the Big East’s Villanova. The Broncs will also play in the Cable Car Classic hosted by Santa Clara.
Rider’s three home contests come against Albany — the return of a 2011-12 BracketBuster game — Wagner and Penn.

The season opener is Nov. 12 at Lehigh.

Because the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference will feature 11 schools this season instead of 10 — Monmouth and Quinnipiac are in, Loyola is out — the two extra conference games forced teams to shorten their non-league schedules. Rider played 12 non-conference contests last season, going 5-7.

The Broncs went 19-15 in Kevin Baggett’s debut season with a second place finish in the MAAC. They also reached the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

RIDER NON-LEAGUE SCHEDULE
November
Sat. 2 West Chester (exhibition)
Tues. 12 at Lehigh
Sun. 17 at Purdue
Sat. 23 at Central Connecticut State
Tues. 26 Albany
Fri. 29 at Cable Car Classic (San Francisco)*
Sat. 30 at Cable Car Classic (San Francisco)*
December
Sat. 14 Wagner
Sat. 21 at Villanova
Sun. 29 Pennsylvania
* Cable Car Classic games are against Rice and North Dakota State

My Take: Again, it's a challenging non-league slate for the Broncs, although you would look at all the games outside of Villanova and Purdue as winnable. This portion of the schedule is all about preparing yourself for league play, so it will be interesting to see how the coaching staff copes with fewer games to iron out the kinks. Six out of nine away from home is also difficult, but Rider has always fancied itself as a decent road team.