Vegas Play of the Day: NC Central vs. UC Davis

By Jesse Granger

Wednesday, March 15, 2017 | 11:43 a.m.

We’ve entered the third season of the annual South Point-lined Play of the Day competition, effective July 1.

Starting bankrolls have reset to $10,000, with the maximum bet being to win $1,000 and the minimum wager $300. Ray Brewer won the 2015-2016 season, after Taylor Bern prevailed in 2014-2015. Bern stepped away in the middle of the 2016-2017 season with a 16-12 record and $13,317 bankroll, with Mike Grimala taking his place.

NC Central minus-3.5 vs. UC Davis, $660 to win $600:

NC Central and UC Davis will face off this afternoon for the right to likely be 25-point underdogs to Kansas on Friday. While it’s an insignificant game in the grand scheme of the NCAA Tournament, it’s a chance for one of these two small schools to get a tournament win.

I think that team will be the NC Central Eagles, who are laying 3.5 points. Playing in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, the Eagles didn’t play the toughest competition. So much so that only six of their 33 games this season had a spread in Las Vegas. The good news: NC Central went 6-0 against the spread in those games, including impressive performances in close losses to LSU (70-66) and Ohio State (69-63). The Eagles also notched resume-building wins over Missouri and Northern Kentucky.

UC Davis played an even easier schedule, with only one game against a team from a power five conference. It wasn’t pretty, with the Aggies losing to California 86-61 on Dec. 10, 2016.

NC Central’s senior Patrick Cole should be the star of the show. The 6-foot-5 guard has led the Eagles with 19.5 points, seven rebounds and five assists per game this season, and there’s no one on UC Davis who can guard him.

I’ll lay the 3.5 points with NC Central.

Current Standings: Grimala (5-7, $9,500), Granger (12-14-1, $7,950), Keefer (38-34-2, $7,881), Brewer (25-26-1, $6,885)