Vegas Play of the Day: Niagara at Fairfield

By Case Keefer (contact)

Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 | 12:53 p.m.

We've reset the Play of the Day with fresh bankrolls and turned it into a yearly competition. Our three sports writers have re-started with $10,000 bankrolls to continue using on odds from the South Point.

Fairfield minus-8 vs. Niagara: $330 to win $300

Getting dealt a Friday Play of the Day this time of year is a bad beat. The college basketball betting board is basically barren, but since I’ve gotten into a rhythm on the sport, I’ll try to force something instead of navigating the NBA terrain.

I can’t claim to know much, OK, anything about these Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opponents. But looking at them from an unbiased statistical standpoint, the Purple Eagles are one of the worst teams in the nation.

Niagara is shooting 28 percent from the 3-point range, ranking in the bottom 10 out of more than 351 Division-1 teams. The Purple Eagles aren’t much better on the defensive end, and try to mask their shortcomings by playing laboriously slow.

Somehow, they’ve won two games in a row as home underdogs to snap a seven-game losing streak. The victories weren’t of the convincing variety, coming by a total of 4 points.

The Purple Eagles are going to reassume their position as a bottom-feeder in the conference. Leave it to the Stags to put them there.

Current Standings (as of July 1): Brewer (30-27, $9,860), Bern (20-30, $5,555), Keefer (26-38-2, $5,461)

Lifetime standings: 2014-15 champion Bern (100-103-1), Keefer (109-121-4), Brewer (99-115-2)

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.