Picking his spots carefully, Stephen Nover won his NIT Game of the Year with underdog South Alabama against Auburn five days ago. While the NCAA tournament takes center stage, the best value plays can be found in the NIT. Stephen has now found his second strongest NIT play on this Sunday matchup. It's the best basketball play on today's menu!
Member Notes
Today’s Free Picks
| Sport | Game Selection | Game Time |
|---|---|---|
| NHL | (37) Tampa Bay Lightning at (38) Calgary Flames | 8:07pm EDT - Mar 22/2026 |
The PLAY: Calgary Flames 145
Tampa Bay is not a team I like to go against. But I'm going to make an exception here getting this high of a price with the home underdog Flames.
Calgary is playing loose without pressure. The Flames are 2-0 on their homestand with victories against the Panthers and Blues.
Yes, this is a huge step up for the Flames. The situation, however, lays out well for them.
Calgary was idle on Saturday. Tampa Bay wasn't. The Lightning defeated the Oilers in Edmonton, 5-2, pushing their record to 3-0 on their current road swing.
This is the Lightning's last game on their four game/six day road swing. It is a huge flat spot for them. I don't see Tampa Bay getting highly motivated for Calgary. They have a bigger game up next when they host the Wild on Tuesday on national television (TNT).
I am expecting to see Jonas Johansson in goal for the Lightning since Andrei Vasilevskiy played against the Oilers last night.
Dreadful is too nice of a word to describe how bad Johansson has been in his last three starts. He has surrendered a staggering 19 goals in those last three starts.
Consultant Bio
Stephen Nover is unique among professional handicappers. A multiple award-winning sportswriter for numerous newspapers, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nover has one the best combinations of gambling and media sources in the world.
The author of two sports gambling books, "Las Vegas Sports Beat" and "Sports Gaming Beat", along with a book on fantasy football titled, "Winning Fantasy Football", Nover is a former professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas having taught a football handicapping class there. He also was the co-host of the Sunday night sports betting radio show "The Stardust Line" during the 1990's.
Parlaying nearly 50 years worth of professional gambling experience with tremendous knowledge of the players through elite deep-roster Rotisserie leagues and building on copious gaming and media sources - having worked for newspapers in the Midwest, South and West and also for legendary Hall of Fame oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough - Nover is a true Las Vegas wise guy. He helped learn his craft from such masters as Roxborough, Dave Malinsky, Lem Banker and Russ Culver.
Part of what makes Nover so special is the pride he takes in writing his deep-dive analysis, which always is unique, well-researched and sometimes entails out-of-the-box thinking.